• Aussie Millions, Poker Down Under is Almost On Us

  The land of Kangaroos and BeeGees, digiroos and Barbies (the grilling kind not the plastic ladiesis also home to one of the best poker tournaments in the world.  The Aussie Millionsis a tournament that is slowly becomming a major as far as tournament poker goes.   You could argue the only thing lacking from an international grand slam in poker akin to the one in tennis is a tournament in Paris.  Vegas and the World Series of Poker doubles for the U.S. Open (don’t let Donald Trump, Atlantic City or the Taj Mahal Casino tell you anything different),  the Aussie Millions, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon is now represented by the World Series of Poker Europe (also in London), so it’s up to Elky and his guys to get the French tournaments on par with these other highly anticipated events.

  That’s what the Aussie Millions has become, an event, that is looked forward to from all over the world.  There are still plenty of ways to win your way to the Aussie Millions online, and join in the fun.  The Aussie Millions has grown from a tournament that started in 1998 with a 1k buy-in and 74 entrants.  It was then known as the Australasian Poker Championship–makes sense as they hadn’t reached the “Millions” part of their name.  The international field, and international primarily because of neighboring New Zealanders coming down to join in, was the start of something special.

  In 2004, the main event had grown to 133 entrants (1.33 million prize pool) and a first place prize just under a half million.  The next year first place was an even million for 263 players.  Heard of the Moneymaker effect?  Well, by that point Australia had.  In 2006 it nearly doubled again to 418 entrants and 1.3 million first place prize.   Heard of the Hachem effect?  Okay, that’s a little more obscure but Joe Hachem brought poker to the mainstream with his Main Event World Series win and the the field grew proportionately.

   Suddenly the Crown Casino was packing 747 entrants with first place at 1.5 million.  In ‘08 780 played with first place 1.65 million.  This year 2 million went to first with a loss of players (down to 681).  However, expectations is growth is returning and a field of online poker player qualifiers and local live players that might top 800 is the scuttlebut around Melbourne.

  Several big names have gotten deep in the Aussie Millions.  In 2007 Gus Hansen an online poker player of note, to say the least, took down the event.  In ‘08 a young Russian named Alexand Kostritsyn bested Erik Seidel for the title.  No telling if that heads up battle will become the stuff of legend, in some Australian movie version of Rounders.  Wonder if Seidel had his hat cocked sideways as he did against Johnny Chan in the now immortalized final hand of the World Series Matt Damon’s character watched in Rounders.

  The Crown Casino in elbourne, Australia, home of the Aussie Millions is a terrific venue and a first class casino.  Last year there were 18 events and running concurrently was the World’s Largest Cash Game with a one million dollar buy-in.  That made the main event sound cheap by comparison.  Entry fee to the main event was 10,500 Australian.  Fox Sports Net televised the event around the world  and is expected to do so again this year. 

  The global participation at this years Aussie Millions will be a lot more than just some Kiwis, in fact, the hosts expect over 400 international visitors to play.  They will make up 1/5th of the players expected to buy-in to the various tournaments as over 2000 different players are rumored to be taking shots at the Aussie Millions.  We joke about the Kiwis but they’ve won more Aussie Millions main events than the Aussies, taking titles in ‘06 and ‘05.

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