Poker at Crown was introduced in June 1997 with the first major championship, then known as the Australasian Poker Championship, held shortly after in July 1998. The Main Event was a $1,000 buy in Limit Holdem tournament that attracted 74 entries with a $74,000 prize pool.
The Crown Australian Poker Championship or the ‘Aussie Millions’ as it became known, moved to January in 2001, attracting 40 entrants with a $5,000 buy in for a prize pool of $200,000. January 2003 saw the event go truly international, attracting a field of 122 entrants and a $1.2m prize pool.
In January 2005, the Aussie Millions reached new heights with a record 263 participants paying $10,000 each to enter the No Limit Holdem Main Event, generating the biggest prize pool ever in the Southern Hemisphere of $2,630,000. Over half the field was from overseas including players from New Zealand, England, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, USA, Sweden, Holland, Canada, Italy and Lebanon.
In 2006 the Aussie Millions proved itself as one of the world’s top multi-million dollar Poker events when 418 players competed for a slice of the AUD$4,18,000 prize pool including some of the biggest names in the Poker world such as WSOP Champion Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Kathy Leibert, Scott Fischman, Chip Jett, David Williams, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Sexton, Tony G, Jesse Jones, Clonnie Gowan plus many more.
The 2007 Aussie Millions again exceeded all expectations with main event player numbers increasing by over 70% year on year, attracting 747 entrants. The event was filmed by Fox Sports Net for the second consecutive year and with high profile pro player Gus Hansen winning the event and collecting the $1.5 million first prize, no doubt the 10 episode series will attract a wide audience when it airs in the US in mid 2007.
In 2008 21-Year-Old Russian Young Gun Alexander Kostritsyn was Crowned Aussie Millions Champion. He had to taken down one of the toughest NL Hold'em tournament players in the world in Erik Seidel for the victory. Seidel walked away in second place with a cool AUD$1 Million.
Kostritsyn took home AUD$1.65 Million, the largest prize ever awarded in a live poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere. He outlasted a record field of 780 players who anted up the AUD$10,000 buy-in for the ‘Main Event’, creating an unprecedented prize pool of AUD$7.80 Million.
The Main Event at Melbourne’s Crown Casino was the culmination of the 16 individual events, which this year generated more than AUD$10 Million in total prize money.
Following on from the enormous ratings success of the US screening of the 2007 and current screening of the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event, Crown and Fox Sports Net (FSN) will be partnering up for another year that will again see the Aussie Millions filmed for broadcast internationally in 2009 with a reach of over 81 Million homes. A coup for Australian Poker, Crown’s collaboration with FSN further consolidates the prestige, recognition and credibility of the Aussie Millions, particularly in America, the home of Texas Holdem and a country that widely considers poker its national game.
