We recently interviewed 2009 HOPC Champ Royce Baker or ‘yankee1869′ on NLOP.  Royce beat out over 1000 players to be the 2009 Hawaii Online Poker Champion and win the GRAND PRIZE of a trip for two to Vegas from Vacations Hawaii and a $100 pupu party from Big City Diner!  See the interview below.

Q) How long have you been playing poker?
A) I’ve been playing poker for a little over a year now, mostly on Pokerstars and Full Tilt, grinding low stakes S&G and MTTs. And I’ve recently begun working with a team of great online poker pros to improve my game as much as possible over the next couple months, and get me into shape to provide coaching to other aspiring poker players.

Q) Do you remember the hand you won the tournament with?  Please tell us about it.
A) I ended up winning the Tournament with AK off suit against Q8.  I had pushed about the previous 4 or 5 hands, so I figured my oppenent would make a stand with anything decent, as he was losing blinds quickly.  He did and luckily the board didn’t pair and Ace high won it.

Q) Do you have another memorable hand or specific moment that you would like to share from the tournament?
A) There was one turning point where I got lucky with about 20 players left.  I had played mostly tight aggressive but hadnt played many hands so I found myself a short stack and had to make a move.  In the SB I pushed into BB with like J8 suited and he calld me down with AK i think and had me covered.  He hit one of his cards and I ended up hitting two pair to double up.  I was a short stack most of the way with about 25 players left.  I think 13/14 near the end and basically tied for short stack going into the final table.  Then I got a couple quick double ups and proceeded to knock the first 5 players out of the final table.  At that point I knew I was going to take it down by just letting the others fight it out and getting to heads up play.  I was thrilled to win.

What’s your favorite poker hand?
A) My favorite poker hand is J 10 suited

Do you have anything to tell the other players?
A) Id like to congratulate all the players for making the final tournament as that was no easy task in itself, as well as those who made the Final table and scored some nice prizes as well.  It was well played by all.

Q) Anything else you’d like to say?
A) I’d like to thank whichever radio station I was listening to on my way to work where I heard about HOPC like two days before the qualifier I won.  And thanks to HOPC for sponsoring the event.  Good luck to all the players out there, keep grinding and see you at the tables.

MAHALO ROYCE and CONGRATS! 

In eight weeks of competition, over 1000 Hawaii Poker players registered to be a part of the 2009 Hawaii Online Poker Championship. From those players, 130 qualified to take part in the final tournament. In the end it was yankee1869 from Ewa Beach who took first in the final tournament on December 27th, taking the title of 2009 Hawaii Online Poker Champion, and the Grand Prize of a trip for two to Las Vegas, courtesy of Vacations Hawaii, plus a $100 pupu party from Big City Diner! Nine other players took home great prizes as well.

Be sure to see our interview with 2009 Hawaii Online Poker Champ yankee1869 here.

Below is the complete winner’s list.

2010 is going to be an exciting year for Hawaii Poker! The Hawaii Poker Weekly Leader board will continue to run every week. Also, we will also be holding the HOPC tournaments again, as well as other events throughout the year. Stay tuned for details - follow us on twitter and fan us on facebook for all the latest news.

Again, congrats to yankee1869 and all of the winners, and mahalo to all who participated in the 2009 Hawaii Online Poker Championship!

IMPORTANT - If you have qualified, you have to manually register yourself for the Championship

How to register for the HOPC Championship:
1) Logon to NLOP
2) Click on the Tournaments tab
3) Click on the Championships tab
4) Locate the “HO Championship” and click the register button

The tournament starts at 12PM HST, be sure to be registered and checked in on time.  If you do not register by 12PM you will not be allowed to participate!

Players who have qualified for the Championship:

11iroc
1stNGoal
4thRdGal
808ikeas
ahikiller
al0ha75
alika
ALLINranada
ALLMYMIGHT
angerbanger
ArcAngel
AveJoe
baba2256
BadAzzOutlaw
bagaong
Braddah
BrahdahJimmy
Broadway71
BRUCE808
BumBaiUlearn
bustanut73
chc
Chiemi
Chikara
Chipgrip71
chubbs178
corian08
dandan808
DaReaper
deeperdiver
Doreme
exyobite
faillure
GaryJW
Genjutsu
GIBSON808
Gino
GoCav
grossyi
haku56
Hardeights
hawaiianguy2
HawaiiGambit
hawicano
Hirize
HOLLISTER808
HP09
Hwnshells
IAMJOEKING
J808dC
JaKeY1DeUcE
Jay_Day
jiggy53
jigy
JimPRF
KAHALUU67
kaikoe
kaku808
kamikaze808
Kamokila
KaneoheKid
kashmony
kekoa
KenDawg1207
knacker
KonaCrash
LIKEAIKEA
Lukela
luminator
Macky
Maddytimber
makawaobeach
Mako
Manaman
Mantaray
markie2121
Marubo
marv01
MauiManiac
mauioutlaw
mcm85
mightymac
mikgoon
mkwatts
mpg12
nalu
nenzone
Niblet
ninjawarrior
Nokturnal
NUKU67
OilCanHog
okna1
Omegaman
onestunna26
P_B4_U_GO
Palenaka
PKaBoo
pnut_smuggla
QueenCat
rippa
ROBBIE808
rockfsh
rookieplaya
rrm41
SAUCEONE
seer777
SEFLOP
shmeedz
slowpoke8008
split808
squidman
SSKB76
str8frmda808
surfgent01
sv444
thaninja
townybear
turboracr
Uncle_Stumpy
uncletuesday
URDUST
urwuthurts
vickys88
wdlevy
west7101
whatheduece
Wildsky09
WSOP50
yankee1869

If you do not see your name on this list and feel you have qualified, please e-mail us ASAP at support (at) hawaiipokerchampionship.com

GOOD LUCK IN THE FINAL!

While there was a bit of a drop in participants for our eighth and final Tuesday Night Qualifer tournament, 74 players still showed up to play for prizes and the ten last entries to the final tournament. Congrats to Chipgrip71 for placing 1st and winning a Gift certificate for a Dinner Cruise for 2 from Body Glove Cruises! The complete winners list is below:

Biggest mahalo to all of you who participated in this and our other tournaments. This was our last qualifer tournament this year, but our tournaments will be back next year. Please continue to play on NLOP, where you can win cash and prizes everyday!

The Week 7 leader board was the last chance for players to qualify for the final from the leader board. Also, entries to the final were doubled, with twenty new entries up for grab. Competition was fierce, with over 300 players actively playing this week.

Our winner this week was QueenCat, HOPC regular and (we believe) the first female winner! All hail the queen!

We are sad not to be able to give any more entries to the final from the leader board. However, please note that you can continue to play for the Hawaii Poker Weekly Leader board on NLOP. We will be periodically offering prizes for our continuing leader board players.

LAST CHANCE! While no more entries are being given away from the Weekly Leader board, there is one more chance to qualify for the final - the Week 8 Tuesday Night Qualifier! 10% of the participants will receive entry to the final (10 seats guaranteed this week). Visit our HOPC Qualfiers page for more info.

The complete Week 7 Leader board winners list is below.

Mahalo to all of you who participated in our weekly leader boards and a big congrats to all the winners!

Thanks to all of you who participated this week and a big congrats to all the winners! Don’t forget about next week’s qualifier on the same day, at the same time: Tuesday, December 22nd at 8PM HST.  It will be your LAST CHANCE to qualify and we will be giving away a BIG prize for first place!

The penultimate weekly leader board failed to disappoint with great action and participation. BRUCE808, winner of weeks 3 and 5, won again! We are in awe of his skill and determination. He will surely be a force to be reckoned with in the final event.

In fact nine out of our top ten players have already qualified for the final event. We had to go all the way to 21st place to get our ten new qualifiers!

The complete winners list is below.

Thanks to all of you who participated this week and a big congrats to all the winners!

LAST CHANCE! Week 7 (12/13-12/20) is the last week on the Hawaii Poker leader board where you can win entry to the final! This week, we are giving away DOUBLE THE ENTRIES- a total of 20 new entries from week seven’s Leader board! Login NOW for your chance to win.

Another exciting Tuesday Night for Hawaii Poker. The Week 6 Hawaii Online Poker Championship Tuesday Night Qualifier saw 87 players from all over Hawaii compete for six great prizes and eight new entries to the final tournament. Congrats to newcomer ALLinranada for taking 1st and winning an hour massage! The complete winners list is below:

Thanks to all of you who participated this week and a big congrats to all the winners! Don’t forget about next week’s qualifier on the same day, at the same time: Tuesday, December 15th at 8PM HST. Only two qualifiers left!

Our weekly leader boards continue to grow, with over 300 players actively competing for our Week 5 leader board. We had our first repeat winner this week, as BRUCE808 (Week 3’s winner) won in convincing fashion, scoring more than twice as many points as anyone else!

Also deserving of praise is 9th place finisher, HawaiiGambit, who has placed in the top 10 in four out of five weekly leader boards thus far!

Five players won prizes this week and ten new players won entry to the HOPC final on 12/27, where they will be playing for some HUGE prizes, including a trip for two to Vegas from Vacations Hawaii.

Thanks to all of you who participated this week and a big congrats to all the winners! Week six’s Leader board has started with some more great prizes and ten more entries to the final tournament being given away. Login NOW for your chance to win.

Our weekly qualifier tournaments continue to grow with over 85 players logging in for our Week 5 Hawaii Online Poker Championship Tuesday Night Qualifier. Eight new players have qualified for the Final tournament and six prizes were won! The winners list is below:

Thanks to all of you who participated this week and a big congrats to all the winners! Don’t forget about next week’s qualifier on the same day, at the same time: Tuesday, December 8th at 8PM HST.