Kiwi Poker Champ and Meth Kingpin Loses Parole Bid

Posted on: May 29, 2023, 05:56h. 

Last updated on: May 29, 2023, 05:56h.

A New Zealand poker player busted for overseeing a sprawling methamphetamine-dealing network has failed in his bid for a shorter sentence.

Shane Thompson, aka Shane Tamihana, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2018. That’s after he admitted to plowing $4.2 million worth of meth into the Hawke’s Bay region on New Zealand’s North Island over an 11-month period in 2016 and 2017.

Around the same time, he was also tearing up the felt. He took first place in the $1,550 NLH Main Event at the Skycity Festival of Poker in Auckland and second place at the $2,000 event at the same festival a year earlier.

Two-Hit Wonder

But there’s little evidence that he was the successful “high-stakes poker player” described by local media. These two medium-buy-in events constitute his entire live career earnings, landing him a modest total of NZ$72.5K (US$44K).

However, this may have been the only “honest” money he made at the time.

In 2018, he was described by a judge as “the most comprehensive methamphetamine dealer Hawke’s Bay has ever seen,” according to The New Zealand Herald.

Thompson’s sentence came with a non-parole period of six and a half years, which means he cannot be considered for release until November 2024 at the earliest.

He attempted to challenge this in New Zealand’s Supreme Court on the basis that the imposition of a minimum period of imprisonment undermined the established legal standard of granting discounts for guilty pleas.

‘Later Bo’

Thompson’s schtick as a poker player, according to the Herald, was to call out the phrase “Later Bo” as he knocked an opponent out of a tournament in an unpleasant breach of poker etiquette.

The Supreme Court resisted the temptation to bat the phrase back at him when it declined his application.

In 2018, New Zealand’s Police Asset Recovery Unit seized five vehicles and $130,000 in cash from Thompson and Gamlen. Last year, they applied successfully for court orders to seize Thompson’s house, as well as an additional vehicle and bank deposits totaling more than NZ$90K.

This was despite Thompson attempting to hide assets by registering the in other peoples’ names.