It took six days to create a champion from the Opening Event field of 1,665 players, but after a heads-up victory against Samuel Jefferies, Jo Snell took the Aussie Millions Championship ring and a massive A$341,325.
With the Crown Casino and poker players within the walls doing their best to raise money to help Australia fight the devastating bushfires that have killed an estimated half a billion animals in the great country, the action at the tables has been just as generous as the charitable donations.
The final day began with just 14 players taking their seats and it wasn’t Snell who had the lead, with players like Jonathan Karamalikis hovering around the lead for the early portion of the action. Snell survived to the final table, but many other highly decorated players didn’t, with WSOP champion Joe Hachem’s son Daniel Hachem coming in 32nd for $5,975), former WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson busting in 21st place for $9,555 and the overnight chip leader David Tang delivered from proceedings in 18th place for a five-figure score of $11,095.
As the final table arrived, Karamalikis was still very much in contention, aiming to win his second Aussie Millions Championship ring in the process. Andrew Shanahan and Bo Jin bowed out in 10th and 9th place respectively, before one of the most important hands of the day went down. Snell and Sohrab Rezvanpour got their money in the middle with both players holding premium hands, but Snell’s pocket kings were ahead of Rezvanpour’s pocket queens and stayed that way through the board to eliminate a dangerous player and successfully vault Snell up the leaderboard in the process.
By the time Karamalikis went out in third place, falling just short of his dream, Snell had the chips, and used his lead to good effect in his heads-up duel with Sam Jefferies. Jeffries couldn’t recover and it was the less-experienced man who got the job done. In doing so, Snell won a career-high score of AUS$341,325 and brought his career earnings to over half a million Australian dollars, as well as winning him the prize which can’t be bought – the ANTON Jewellery Aussie Millions Championship ring.
Aussie Millions Opening Event final table results:
| Place | Player | Payout ($AUS) |
| 1st | Jo Snell | $341,325 |
| 2nd | Samuel Jeffries | $210,775 |
| 3rd | Jonathan Karamalikis | $125,445 |
| 4th | Michael Egan | $90,625 |
| 5th | Jungwoon An | $61,450 |
| 6th | Ryan Henry | $44,375 |
| 7th | Egor Bulychev | $37,550 |
| 8th | Sohrab Rezvanpour | $32,425 |
| 9th | Bo Jin | $27,315 |
| 10th | Andrew Shanahan | $20,825 |
