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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

MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE – PLAYER PROFILES 2018 AUSSIE MILLIONS POKER CHAMPIONSHIP - 05 February 2018
Seat 1 – Espen Solaas (28, Norway) – Known as “Essi” to his friends, Espen Solaas, is a young Norwegian based in London whose live breakout came in the €880 Norwegian Championship Main Event in 2015. There, Solaas won just over $100,000 and has since won about another $180,000 live, supplementing his online earnings, where he plays pot-limit Omaha cash games and has been grinding since he was a 17-year-old. Solaas showcased his PLO skills at last year's Aussie Millions, where he won the A$5,000 PLO event for A$100,815. He'll try to grab a second, much bigger title here in 2018.

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Seat 2 – Johan Schumacher (18, Belgium) – Schumacher might a relative neophyte to live poker – he's just 18, after all – with just $8,761 in recorded cashes, but he said a different game is his specialty: Mario Kart. Don't
challenge him on Bowser's Castle. Poker, he says, is something he only plays “after every moon eclipse” when taking breaks from dodging red shells. Jokes aside, the Belgian comes into the final table with the shortest stack but appears to be long on personality and certainly long on garish fashion, if his bright pink attire on Day 4 is any judge.

Seat 3 – Mike Del Vecchio (29, USA),– “Mikey D” announced his presence on the tournament scene in a big way last year, when he added his name to the WPT Champions Cup at WPT Rolling Thunder. He nearly grabbed an even more prestigious title less than two months ago, when he finished third at WPT Five Diamond for a career-best $752,196. The Las Vegas-based pro made his first trip to Aussie Millions this year and has had a wild ride going from massive chip leader to shortest stack on Day 4 and now back to around average heading into the final table.

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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

TOBY LEWIS WINS THE 2018 AUSSIE MILLIONS MAIN EVENT FOR OVER $1.4M - 05 February 2018
Melbourne, Australia. Sunday 4 February 2018. The winner of the largest ever Aussie Millions Main Event in history has been crowned, with Toby Lewis claiming the title along with A$1,458,198 in prize money, as well as the custom made diamond-encrusted gold bracelet by ANTON Jewellery.

This year’s Aussie Millions $10,600 Main Event attracted a record field of 800, defeating the mark of 781 set back in 2008, and in the process created a huge prize pool of A$8,000,000.

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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 must eclipse 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!”

With the chip lead, Lewis cut a deal three-handed between eventual runner-up Stefan Huber and third-place finisher Espen Solaas, meaning the Englishman walked away with A$1,383,198, with Huber and Solaas receiving A$909,699 and A$1,177,103 respectively.

After the deal, the final three continued playing with the title, ANTON Jewellery bracelet and A$75,000 in prize money up top. It didn’t take long for Lewis to emerge triumphant, and add his name to the likes of Gus Hansen, Ami Barer and Ari Engel on the long and illustrious list of Aussie Millions Champions.

Read Full Media Release

For further media information please contact:
Catherine Wilcox
Senior Communications Manager
Crown Melbourne
Telephone: +61 3 9292 8608
Email: catherine.wilcox@crownresorts.com.au

TWITCH.TV AND JASON SOMERVILLE ARE LIVE AT THE 2018 AUSSIE MILLIONS MAIN EVENT - 01 February 2018
MELBOURNE, Australia. Thursday 1 February 2018. Jason Somerville’s Twitch.tv account is the exclusive broadcast partner for the 2018 Aussie Millions Poker Championship with the live stream commencing today, Thursday 1 February at 12:30pm AEST at ‘Main Event’ – Day Three.

Crown Melbourne’s Tournament Director, Joel Williams, said they are thrilled to partner with Twitch in 2018. “We are very excited to partner once again with Jason Somerville to live stream key moments from the 2018 Aussie Millions. Last year’s partnership was incredibly successful and took our championship to new global audiences. As one of the world’s great Poker tournaments, we are looking to build on this in 2018.”

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MELBOURNE, Australia. Thursday 1 February 2018. Jason Somerville’s Twitch.tv account is the exclusive broadcast partner for the 2018 Aussie Millions Poker Championship with the live stream commencing today, Thursday 1 February at 12:30pm AEST at ‘Main Event’ – Day Three.

Crown Melbourne’s Tournament Director, Joel Williams, said they are thrilled to partner with Twitch in 2018. “We are very excited to partner once again with Jason Somerville to live stream key moments from the 2018 Aussie Millions. Last year’s partnership was incredibly successful and took our championship to new global audiences. As one of the world’s great Poker tournaments, we are looking to build on this in 2018.”

Jason Somerville said “I'm honored to once again partner with Crown Melbourne to showcase the 2018 Aussie Millions live on Twitch. The Aussie Millions is one of the most prestigious poker tournaments on the calendar and I'm excited to present the action once again to fans around the globe. We broke the Twitch Poker record for last year's broadcasts and we've got an even better show planned for the fans in 2018.”

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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

IT’S OFFICIAL – AUSSIE MILLIONS MAIN EVENT BREAKS ENTRY RECORD - 01 February 2018
Melbourne. Thursday 1 February. It’s official; the 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event field is the largest ever with 785 entries, smashing last year’s entries of 725 and the previous record set in 2008 of 781.

Aussie Millions Tournament Director, Joel Williams says “We knew we would get close to breaking the record but to actually do it is so exciting. The team has worked hard to make this year’s tournament the biggest and best yet and this proves that we are well on our way to achieving that goal.”

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Melbourne. Thursday 1 February. It’s official; the 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event field is the largest ever with 785 entries, smashing last year’s entries of 725 and the previous record set in 2008 of 781.

Aussie Millions Tournament Director, Joel Williams says “We knew we would get close to breaking the record but to actually do it is so exciting. The team has worked hard to make this year’s tournament the biggest and best yet and this proves that we are well on our way to achieving that goal.”

With an estimated total prize pool of over AUD$8 million, the Main Event competition is going to be fierce with some of the world’s best poker players hitting the felts in their quest to take out the first prize of an estimated AUD$1.6 million and the diamond encrusted championship bracelet.

Jason Somerville’s Twitch.tv account will be the exclusive broadcast partner for the 2018 Aussie Millions Poker Championship Main Event with the live stream commencing for Day Three on Thursday 1 February at 12:30pm AEST. The stream will continue through to Day Four on Friday 2 February, break for Saturday 3 February and then recommence for the Final Table on Sunday 4 February.

Read Full Media Release

For further media information please contact:
Catherine Wilcox
Senior Communications Manager
Crown Melbourne
Telephone: +61 3 9292 8608
Email: catherine.wilcox@crownresorts.com.au

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