The biggest poker tournament in the history of New Zealand has been won by–surprise, surprise–a New Zealander!

Daniel Craker, 30, a full-time plasterer and part-time poker player from Lower Hutt, New Zealand, on Saturday won the Sky City Festival of Poker Main Event, a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had 306 entrants, payouts to the Top 32, a buy-in of 3,000 New Zealand dollars (about 1,800 U.S. dollars) and a total prize pool of about 800,000 New Zealand dollars (about 480,000 U.S. dollars).

The four-day tourney was held in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

A New Zealand dollar is worth about 60 U.S. cents.

The colossal prize pool made the event the largest poker tournament in the history of New Zealand, a small double-island nation off the coast of Australia.

For the victory, Craker collected 257,040 New Zealand dollars, about 155,000 U.S. dollars.

The runnerup in the tournament was Matthew Konnecke of Australia, who earned 162,791 New Zealand dollars.

Third was Wang Jung of New Zealand, who won 85,680 New Zealand dollars.

Fourth was Dan Sing of New Zealand, who pocketed 59,976 New Zealand dollars.

Fifth was Luke Stanford of New Zealand, who snagged 46,267 New Zealand dollars.

Sixth was Nathanael Seet of Singapore, who earned 34,272 New Zealand dollars.

Seventh was Jani Karke of Finland, who won 25,704 dollars.

Eighth was Michael Mariakis of Australia, who picked up 19,706 New Zealand dollars.

Ninth was Wai Yuen of the England, who pocketed 14,565 New Zealand dollars.

Competitors from 21 countries competed in the tournament, including American Greg “Fossilman” Raymer and Australian Joe Hachem, who have each won the World Series of Poker Main Event.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)