Aussie Millions
The Aussie Millions (also more traditionally known as The Crown Australian Poker Championship) is the biggest annual poker tournament to be held in the Southern Hemisphere with the size of the prize pool generally exceeding AU$7m.
The first championship was held in July 1998, just a year after the Crown Casino in Melbourne was opened. Since then, the venue of the vent has remained the same although the size of it has grown immeasurably.
While the first event attracted only 74 players, the Casino expects to welcome 2,500 players in 2010 from around the world making The Aussie Millions one of the largest events in the poker calendar.
While most other major poker tournaments (including the World Series of Poker) play at nine handed-tables throughout, the Aussie Millions is slightly different in as far as players are sat at eight-handed tables until the field is reduced to thirty six players. At this point, the size of play is reduced further so that just six players sit around each table until one final table remains.
Another unique feature of the tournament is the $100,000 Challenge which takes place each year. Billed as the world’s most expensive poker tournament, high rollers from around the globe turn up to pay $100,000 to buy-in to the No Limit Holdem challenge.
As with the main event, the structure of this challenge is slightly unusual too:
- Players start with 100,000 chips – that’s 5x the number of chips players would be given at either the WSOP or the Aussie Millions Main Event
- Betting is restricted to pot limit before the flop and no limit afterwards
- Players are only given 30 seconds to make a decision, although each player is awarded 3 ‘extensions’ at the beginning of the tournament which allows them another 30 seconds to decide on big hands.
Given the size of the buy-in, it’s not surprising that the size of the field is limited, but it does seem to be growing. When it first ran in 2006, it only had entrants. This had grown to 24 in 2010.
Previous winners of the Aussie Millions include Gus Hansen (2007) and Alexander Kostritsyn (2008).
Qualify for the Aussie Millions
As with most other major tournaments, the vast majority of online poker rooms run a variety of different satellites to allow players to win a seat at the Aussie Millions for a fraction of the standard buy-in fee.
Whereas most players flying out to Melbourne will be required to pay $10,000 for a seat in the Main Event, online poker players can win their place for just a few dollars by playing their way through a few qualifying events.
We will shortly be publishing in-depth information on the various Aussie Millions qualifiers open to players, but in the meantime we would suggest visiting Pokerstars or Full Tilt who generally have the most seats to give away to their players.
European players might want to check out PKR too. While they don’t have as many seats to give away, the standard of competition is generally lower meaning that your chances of winning increase significantly.
