The Aussie Millions is the most successful poker tour that operates outside of the big three. It has been attracting dreamers since 1998, and its success attracted the interest of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) who chose the Crown Melbourne to show the Southern Hemisphere what all the fuss was about in 2013.
The history of the event dates back to 1998 when a main event was created that held an A$1,000 buy-in. It was given the title of the Australasian Poker Championships and the Australian Alex Horowitz defeated 73 other souls to take the first prize of $25,900. A certain David Gorr finished third in that event and would later win the event for a substantially larger prize in 2011.
2002 saw a name change when The Crown Australian Poker Championships (later to be referred to as The Aussie Millions) was born, and along with it came a new buy-in of A$5,000. John Mayer defeated 65 other players to take the $150,000 first prize.
Then things changed in a big way.
Perhaps influenced by the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, the Crown created a much larger series with an A$10,000 cherry on top, and the event went truly global for the first time since its inception.
Everyone remembers 2003 as the year of the poker boom. Chris Moneymaker managed to eek his way into the WSOP Main Event, for peanuts, won the thing, and the whole world imagined they could do the same.
Meanwhile, Down Under, Peter Costa was making history as the first winner of the A$10,500 Aussie Millions Main Event. Costa was hot stuff at the time as British poker became popularized as a result of the groundbreaking TV series created by Presentable: Late Night Poker.
That TV show also created stars in the shape of the Hendon Mob. The first poker players to make serious in roads into sponsorship, and Ram Vaswani (6th) and Joe Beevers (9th) also made the final table, with Barny Boatman bubbling in 10th.
122 players entered that first main event and Costa walked away with $394,870 in prize money. The series consisted of 9 side-events, and Australia’s Mel Judah won the $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event. It would be the first of four side event titles making Judah the most successful winner of events in the history of the series.
The following year saw another exodus of Brits flock to Oz as news of the event spread in the wake of Costa’s victory. This time the series was spread over 12 events and the Main Event had grown to 133 entrants.
Once again it would be a Brit who would take the top honor as Tony Bloom captured the first prize of A$426,500. In later years, the Aussie Millions would become a home from home for some players; and this was certainly the case with Bloom. Since that Main Event victory Bloom has returned to Oz to pick up significant scores in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
New Zealand is often cast in the shadow of Australia, but for two years in 2005 & 2006, it took center stage as Jamil Dia and Lee Nelson took the title – and the money – back to the place that produces scary looking rugby players.
It was also about this time when the great players from the States started to take the long and laborious flight.
Mike Sexton took a side event victory in 2005, Shannon Shorr made the final table in 2006 for a 4th place finish and Kenna James made it final table number two when he finished 9th in 2006.
2005 was the first time a A$1,000,000 prize was handed out as Dia defeated 262 players to take the crown from The Crown; and 2006 saw the introduction of the $100,000 Challenge.
Initially called the $100,000 Speed Poker Million Dollar Challenge, 10 players ponied up the quite considerable sum of money, and A$1,000,000 of it ended up in the pockets of one of the players of the decade: Mr. John Juanda.
Gus Hansen may be pilloried at the moment for being the biggest loser of all time, in online cash games, but he is still the proud owner of five seven figure cashes in live tournaments.
The second of his career came in the 2007 Aussie Millions when he earned $1,500,000 after defeating the online qualifier Jimmy Fricke in heads-up action. It was a pivotal moment for the Aussie Millions as people flocked to The Crown in their droves, either because they wanted to follow in Fricke’s relatively inexpensive online footsteps, or they had read Every Hand Revealed and believed, just like Gus that they could win a tournament playing with every hand irrespective of position.
It was also the second year that the $100,000 Challenge would be held and Erick Lindgren would defeat Erik Seidel in heads up action to take the A$1,000,000 first prize. It would be Seidel’s first taste of the Aussie Millions gravy train and he would learn to lap it up with over $5m in earnings.
The tournament hit its apex in 2008 when a record breaking 780-players took to the felt. Alexander Kostritsyn won the first prize of $1,650,000 when he defeated Erik Seidel, in heads-up action, and there were side event victories for the former runner-up Jimmy Fricke and a young Canadian called Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald.
The $100,000 Challenge purse remained in the hands of those players who used to chat, teach and play with the players on Full Tilt Poker (FTP) (Before they added steal all of your money onto the tagline) after Howard Lederer beat Mark Teltscher to win the $1,250,000 first prize.
Another couple of records were broken in 2009.
The series expanded its impressive arsenal with a 20-event series making it the biggest of its kind; and the largest-ever first prize was distributed to Stewart Scott, when he became the first Australian to win the A$10k version of the Main Event, and he was duly rewarded with a A$2,000,000 first prize.
The returning champion Kostritsyn won a side-event, as did Michael Binger, John Tabatabai, Jarred Solomon and that man Mel Judah; David Steicke took $1,250,000 in the $100k Challenge, and it was the first time in the series history that main event numbers had started to head South.
Dan Shak is another of those players that seems to revel in The Crown, and 2010 was the year that people first started to imagine him as a professional poker player, instead of making his millions trading in Snow Peas and Brussel Sprouts. Shak picking up $1.2m for victory in the $100,000 Challenge.
The main event saw an increase in numbers from the previous year as 746 players created a A$2m first prize that ended up in the top pocket of Tyron Krost, who won his second event of the series against a rather juicy looking line up including Frederick Jensen (2nd), Sorel Mizzi (3rd), Peter Jetten (5th) and Annette Obrestad (7th).
Another change in 2011, and a very significant one. If $100,000 wasn’t enough to lure in the businessman and mega rich poker stars, then why not try $250,000. They did, it was a success, and today you can even re-enter as many times as you want within the first four hours!
Erik Seidel took that first $250,000 event for a staggering A$2,500,000 first prize after defeating Sam Trickett in heads-up action. Incredibly, Trickett was coming off the back of victory in the $100,000 where he earned $1,525,000 – and Seidel finished third in that event.
By the end of 2011 Trickett had announced himself on the world stage with $4.6m in live tournament earnings, and Seidel had gone a few million better with an amazing haul of $6.5m.
The series itself had grown to 23-events and the Main Event drew 721 players. David Gorr (the man who finished 3rd in the first-ever Main Event in 1998) taking the first prize of $2,000,000 against the most difficult final table in the history of the series: James Keys (2nd), Jeff Rossiter (3rd), Randy Dorfman (5th), Samad Razavi (6th), Chris Moorman (7th), Patrik Antonius (8th) and Sorel Mizzi (9th).
Back to back Aussie wins would be achieved when Oliver Speidel took the title in 2012. 658 players created a first prize of $1,600,000 and Phil Ivey finished in 12th spot.
26 events increased the record for the largest ever series with side event wins coming from Jim Collopy, Aaron Lim, Dan Kelly, David Bach and Tom Middleton.
A new title was introduced in the shape of a A$25,000 event and Dominykas Karmazinas picked that title up. Dan Smith won the $100,000 Challenge and Phil Ivey made it a very successful trip with victory in the $250,000 Super High Roller.
Dan Smith went on to win $3.7m, that year, and would be crowned the Global Poker Index Player of the Year, whilst Phil Ivey would win $3.6m in the second best year in his live tournament career.
2013 saw the roster pegged at 26-events with Rupert Elder, Micah Raskin, and Mike Watson picking up side events. Mel Judah deserves special mention for his fourth title after beating Dan Kelly in the $2,500 HORSE event.
Mervin Chan defeated 629 entrants to capture the $1.6m first prize that produced back-to-back final tables from Patrik Antonius (3rd) and another great showing from Dan Shak (4th); Andrew Robl won the $100k Challenge and $1,00,000, for beating Igor Kurganov; and Shak was once again earning some coin with fourth.
This was also the year that saw the rise of the Germans in the Super High Roller strata. We have mentioned the runner-up spot for Kurganov in the $100k; well Sam Trickett had to compete against three of them as he won $2,000,000 in the $250,000 Super High Roller (Tobias Reinkemeier, Fabian Quoss and Igor Kurganov all in the final four); and Kurganov went on to make it an amazing personal series when he won the $25k event for $275,000 by beating his friend, and fellow countryman, Philipp Gruissem; Seidel finished third with the Germans Nicklas Heinecker (4th) and Quoss (5th) closing out the action.
The 2014 series will begin on Thursday 23 January and will run to 10 February. The Main Event will take place Monday 2nd February to Sunday 9th, and there will be 20-events ranging from A$1,100 to A$250,000.
19 Aussie Millions Championship Rings will be dished out and the winner of the Main Event will receive a Championship bracelet worth A$25,000. There will be a guaranteed $1,600,000 first prize and 4,000 guests are expected to fill the halls of The Crown Casino, as $20,000,000 in prizes will be handed out to some of the biggest stars in the universe.
It will also be the first time that every event will include one re-entry with the exception of the Main Event. The $250,000 Challenge will allow unlimited re-entries for the first four hours, which could result in the biggest first prize to come out of Australia since that A$2.5m victory by Seidel back in 2011.
