Aussie Millions
- Latest Aussie Millions News
- History of the Aussie Millions Poker Event
- The End of the Aussie Millions
- Aussie Millions Main Event Winners
- Aussie Millions FAQs
Aussie Millions 2024
Latest Aussie Millions News
The latest news about the event, as of early 2024, is that there is a slim possibility that it may return in the future, as Crown Casinos have now resumed hosting regular poker tournaments again and there are rumours that they intend to run a major poker series again. In April 2024, the casino will host the Crown Poker Series, with a A$1,500 buy-in, which will be the first event at the casino since October 2020. Perhaps that could signal the return of the Aussie Millions in future.
A future return of the Aussie Millions woud be even more enhanced by partnering with an online poker site for satellites and qualifcation promotions. Sites such as GGPoker would be ideal online partners for Aussie Milliions to partner with. Becoming a part of the WPT with satellites on WPT Global would also be a great solution for the Aussie Millions to ensure this historic event's return to the annual poker calendar.
History of the Aussie Millions Poker Event
The year is 1998 and the first Main Event just finished. 74 entrants, $74,000, one winner. The winner that first year was Alex Horowitz who won $25,900. The first year was the spark that set the Australian poker craze ablaze and it spread like wildfire.
The Aussie Millions, as it was eventually called, had its first year in 2001 with 40 players. The entry fee rose to $5,000 creating a prize pool of $200,000.
At the time this was a good-sized prize pool since the induction of million-dollar tournaments every other day, hadn’t yet become a thing. While the player pool continued to grow this was still an all-Aussie tournament with only three players from other countries, reaching the Final Four tables.
By 2003 the Aussie Millions had truly ballooned into one of the premier poker tours in the world. 2001 saw 40 players enter but by 2003 there were 122 players. That year was also the high entry fee to date with a buy-in of $10,000. This event had the rich and powerful from across the world.
The next year had its first true non-poker world star win the Aussie Millions, when Brighton & Hove Albion chairman Tony Bloom won. If you don’t know who Brighton & Hove Albion are, they are a team from the English Premier League.
First prize for Tony Bloom was almost half a million dollars ($426,500). He was just the second non-Australian to win the Millions. Peter Costa being the first the year before.
While the entry fee had leveled out at $10,000, the number of entrants continued to balloon. We saw the Aussie Millions become more than just an Australian-centered event.
This was clear to any viewer, when in 2007 the Aussie Millions final table had seven players from six different countries. That year was also the biggest first prize to date with $1,500,000 up for grabs.
By 2010 the first place prize had ballooned to $2 million. Since then, the average first place prize has gone from about $1.5 to $2 million for first place. We saw the average number of entrants between 650-825 players still with the $10,000 entry fee.
Unfortunately, that was only up until the 2020 season when the world stopped due to COVID. With the cancellation of the tour that year it seems that we may have seen the last of the Aussie Millions.
With the growth of so many other main stream poker tours in Australia, some with much larger prizes, not just for first place but the entire pay structure.
Australian’s now have the Australian Poker Tour, The World Series of Poker, Crown Australian Poker Tour, the Australian Poker League, and the Aussie Millions for now has seen its final days.
The End of the Aussie Millions
The last year the Aussie Millions ran was in 2020. The tournament has yet to return and on a social media post Crown Poker stated that the Aussie Millions “will no longer be running at Crown.”
The handling of the cancelation could have been much different since some people still don’t know the truth. The answer to its return was not officially released in any form but as an answer to a question on the Crown Poker Facebook page. There has been no other word about it since then.
Part of the reason that the Aussie Millions may not be returning to the Crown Resorts is because Australian gambling authorities have found Crown Resorts, an Australian gambling juggernaut, unfit to hold a casino operators license at locations in Melbournce, Perth, and the recently opened property in Sydney.
The Main Event, the Aussie Millions, or whatever else you might know it as, had become one of the most beloved stops on not just the Australian poker scene but on the national stage as well.
Once an all-Australian event, we saw the Aussie Millions grow into a truly international event that helped players from around the world become poker stars. From it’s modest beginning of $1,000 entry and $25,000 first place prize to entry fees of $10,000 and a $2 million first place prize, the Main Event will be missed.
Aussie Millions Main Event Winners
These are all the Aussie Millions main event winners since the tournament began in 1998 until its last and most recent outing in 2020.
| Year | Winner | Players | Total Prize Pool | 1st Place Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 (A$1k Buy-In) | Alex Horowitz | 74 | A$74,000 | A$25,900 |
| 1999 | Milo Nadalin | 109 | A$109,000 | A$38,150 |
| 2000 (A$1.5k Buy-In) | Leo Boxell | 109 | A$173,500 | A$65,225 |
| 2001 | Sam Korman | 101 | A$151,500 | A$53,025 |
| 2002 (A$5k Buy-In) | John Maver | 66 | A$330,000 | A$150,000 |
| 2003 (A$10k Buy-In) | Peter Costa | 122 | A$1,220,000 | A$394,870 |
| 2004 | Tony Bloom | 133 | A$1,330,000 | A$426,500 |
| 2005 | Jamil Dia | 263 | A$2,630,000 | A$1,000,000 |
| 2006 | Lee Nelson | 418 | A$4,180,000 | A$1,295,800 |
| 2007 | Gus Hansen | 747 | A$7,470,000 | A$1,500,000 |
| 2008 | Alexander Kostritsyn | 780 | A$7,758,500 | A$1,650,000 |
| 2009 | Stewart Scott | 681 | A$6,810,000 | A$2,000,000 |
| 2010 | Tyron Krost | 746 | A$7,460,000 | A$2,000,000 |
| 2011 | David Gorr | 721 | A$7,210,000 | A$2,000,000 |
| 2012 | Oliver Speidel | 659 | A$6,590,000 | A$1,600,000 |
| 2013 | Mervyn Chan | 629 | A$6,290,000 | A$1,600,000 |
| 2014 | Amichai Barer | 668 | A$6,680,000 | A$1,600,000 |
| 2015 | Aristomenis Stavropoulos | 648 | A$6,480,000 | A$1,385,500 |
| 2016 | Alan Engel | 732 | A$7,320,000 | A$1,600,000 |
| 2017 | Shurane Vijayaram | 725 | A$7,250,000 | A$1,600,000 |
| 2018 | Toby Lewis | 800 | A$8,000,000 | A$1,458,198 |
| 2019 | Bryn Kenney | 822 | A$8,220,000 | A$1,272,598 |
| 2020 | Vincent Wan | 820 | A$8,200,000 | A$1,318,000 |
Aussie Millions FAQs
What is the Aussie Millions
The Aussie Millions was an annual poker championship held at the Crown Casino, Melbourne from 1998 until 2020.
Why was the Aussie Million cancelled?
The real reason is unknown, but it is linked to Crown Casino Melbourne ceasing to offer poker
Will the Aussie Millions return?
In early 2024 rumours began to surface suggesting that the Aussie Millions might return as soon as 2025, as Crown Casino Melbourne has resumed running poker events once again.
