2018 AUSSIE MILLIONS POKER CHAMPIONSHIP WORLD CLASS EVENT SMASHES RECORDS - 27 February 2018
Melbourne, Australia. Tuesday 27 February 2018. The 2018 Aussie Millions has officially finished and once again it smashed all expectations, drawing poker aficionados from around the world and breaking entrant records. The Main Event drew an all-time record 800 entrants and, with 7,746 tournament entries across the series, the Aussie Millions lived up to its name as the Southern Hemisphere's richest and most prestigious poker tournament.
Over AUD$21 million in cash was awarded to winners and place getters during the course of the 26 championship events and the 2018 series hosted some of the world’s biggest poker players including Fedor Holz, Mustapha Kanit, Sam Greenwood, Dietrich Fast, Felipe Ramos, Manig Loeser, Martin Jacobson, David Steicke, Allen Kessler, Jan Schwippert, Claas Segebrecht, Christain Christner, Matt Salsberg, Kenny Hallaert, Samantha Abernathy, Kristen Bicknell, Alex Foxen, Chance Kornuth, Gillian Epp, Jack Salter, Joe Hachem, along with past Aussie Millions Main Event winners Shurane ‘Shaz' Vijayaram, Ari Engel, Manny Stavropoulos, Tyron Krost, and David Gorr.
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Local Australian identities were also spotted on the tables including cricket hero Shane Warne, NRL star Billy Slater and AFL legend Adam Goodes.
Event #11: $10,600 Aussie Millions ‘Main Event’
The biggest story of them all is and will always be the Aussie Millions ‘Main Event’, which has been taking place at Crown since 1998. The buy-in in 1998 was only $1,000, and 74 players entered the championship that year, with the winner, Alex Horowitz, taking home AUD$25,900. Compare that to 2018 which saw a Main Event prize pool of AUD$8,000,000. The Championship winner was slated to receive an impressive AUD$1,800,000, making the 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event the largest of all time.
Toby Lewis (UK) was crowned the Main Event Champion. Along with his impressive first place haul, he received the custom made diamond-encrusted gold bracelet by ANTON Jewellery.
Lewis soars up his country’s all-time money rankings with this win, and now has over US$4,000,000 in lifetime earnings. A regular on the poker scene, his previous biggest score came back in 2010 when he won EPT Vilamoura. Since then, he has posted final table finishes at several EPT and WPT events, most recently placing fourth at PCA in 2016 for US$267,340. However, this result eclipses all of them and stands as the biggest title of his poker career.
“The last time I won a big tournament was seven and a half years ago,” said Lewis after his win. “I’ve played a lot of poker in that time, with lots of fourth and fifth places over the years. So once I got a big stack in this one, it seemed like a great spot to go on and win!”
“Over the last few months I’ve been working on my game a lot harder than I ever have. Today I made sure my concentration was 100% no matter how tired I was, and it worked out.”
“Melbourne is my favourite city in the world, and I haven’t been in five years because of other commitments! I definitely should have come back sooner, because this is my favourite tournament in the world!”
Aussie Millions - High Roller Action
While the ‘Main Event’ attracted the biggest field since it’s inception, the Aussie Millions has also become a hotbed for some of the largest buy-in poker tournaments across the globe.
This year’s Event 24 $100,000 Challenge was no exception comprising of 19 entries, including Fedor Holz (GER), Manig Loeser (GER), Mustapha Kanit (ITA) and Jack Salter (UK).
However, they were no match for recreational player Michael Lim (MYS) who came into the day with a comfortable stack of 45 big blinds, and navigated the star-studded field to emerge with AUD$931,000 in prize money and the coveted ANTON Jewellery championship ring.
Let’s not forget Felix Stephenson of Norway. After finishing up play in the Poker Room went upstairs to the cash tables and scored himself the Caribbean Stud Jackpot of AUD$1,056,535! He then went on to win Event 19 $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha, scoring AUD$81,900 and the ANTON Jewellery championship ring. This trip is certainly one to remember.
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For further media information please contact:
Catherine Wilcox
Senior Communications Manager
Crown Melbourne
Telephone: +61 3 9292 8608
Email: catherine.wilcox@crownresorts.com.au