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If you've never been to New Zealand, you should really make it a point to go once in your life. Gigantic glaciers empty out into some of the world's largest rain forests. Peaks rise high above the ocean in the country's sounds and grass pastures provide the landscape for movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Calling the two island nation home are PocketFivers Neil Puggy82 Stewart and Shaun mathclub Goldsbury. In fact, the two formerly roomed together in a flat in Mount Maunganui, which is located on the North Island. Mathclub has since moved in with his girlfriend, who lives in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. PocketFives.com virtually sat down with the pair of Kiwis to learn more about the poker scene in New Zealand.

If you're going to pick up and move to New Zealand, you should know that the country is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Time and 19 hours ahead of Pacific Time in North America. Comparatively, it is a full 12 hours ahead of GMT. However, poker players who move there thrive on the schedule, which is much more comparable to friends and family who have traditional full-time jobs. Shaun mathclub Goldsbury told PocketFives.com, “I really like it because I can start any time from 8:00am to 1:00pm, play a good eight hour session, and still have my nights free to socialize with friends, play sports, and live a pretty normal life, unlike American players.”

Goldsbury took down a Triple Crown back in October, winning tournaments on PartyPoker, PokerRoom, and Titan Poker. None of those sites accepts U.S. players. Recently, he chopped the UltimateBet $200,000 Guaranteed for $39,000. On the decision to chop, the New Zealander recalled, “At the final table from seven or eight people left, there were a bunch of low-stakes players who either won a satellite to get in or took a shot. Half of them were playing like maniacs on a freeroll and the rest were playing pretty tight trying to move up in money. Once I figured out who was who and adjusted my game, it seemed to come pretty easily.” He was nearly offered first place money ($44,000) in the chop.

A friend on a soccer scholarship at the University of California at Santa Barbara imported poker to Goldsbury and company back in New Zealand. He deposited $200 onto Ultimate Bet and grinded away at $5 sit and gos to build his bankroll. It's been all uphill since. He took down the $50,000 Guaranteed Super Tuesday on Titan Poker two weeks in a row in late February and early March for a combined $27,000. His article “Tips for Better Multi-Tabling” generated quite a buzz when it was published on PocketFives.com last November.

Goldsbury's former roommate,  Neil Puggy82 Stewart (pictured at right), recently took fifth in the $1,500 buy-in $2.5 Million Guaranteed on Titan Poker for $125,000. The six-figure payday narrowly took the crown as his largest online poker cash, surpassing a $117,000 payday for winning the ChampionChip Final on PokerRoom last October. As you can tell, he has a bevy of rooms to choose from and commented, “Having every site available to me is key, as it means that game selection is a big thing. I can be picky with which tournaments I choose to play. What will seem rather bizarre to any American is that the one site I hardly play on at all is PokerStars.”

Stewart is also a Triple Crown winner and sits in 97th in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings. He's watched as players on the iPoker Network have tried to adjust with having antes added to tournaments and explained, “The amount you can open pre-flop without anyone playing back is frightening. When you do get played back at, you can be pretty sure they have the goods.”

He cruised along in the Titan Poker $2.5 Million Guaranteed, not having to put all of his chips at risk between the second hour and the final table, where he started with 50 big blinds. However, he went card dead from there. Stewart recalled, “I was completely card dead at the final table and found my spots limited. That was probably the most disappointing thing about my exit: knowing that I could  have forced a higher place finish by being more active earlier at the final table.”

Stewart is about to head to the United Kingdom until the winter, when he'll head back to New Zealand (where it will be the summer). You'll be able to catch him at the World Poker Tour's (WPT) event in Venice, Italy and then in Las Vegas for the 2009 World Series of Poker. On his travels, he admitted, “I can pay rent and play poker anywhere in the world. I'm still young and have no ties, so why not?” The WPT has partnered with Ongame Network room bwin for the Venice tournament, which takes place from May 6th to May 10th at the Casino di Venezia. The WSOP begins on May 27th from the Rio.

Stewart wanted to send a shout out to Neil theVisionary Mcfayden (pictured at left), whom he runs Poker-Allies.com with. Stewart, Mcfayden, and mathclub sit in first, second, and third, respectively, on the PocketFives.com Sliding Leader Board for New Zealand at the time of writing. Mathclub has nearly cracked the 4,000 point mark and the next closest person on the leader board has fewer than 3,000. Both Stewart and Mcfayden have average scores of over 100.

Congratulations from all of us here at PocketFives.com to Stewart and Goldsbury, two highly successful New Zealand residents.

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