The Aussie Millions Main Event starts today
The main event of Asia-Pacific's richest and most prestigious poker festival is set to commence today at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.
The AU$10,000 Aussie Millions main event - the largest tournament in the Southern Hemisphere -starts today and concludes on Sunday, February 9.
On top of the main event, the high rollers will be out in force for the AU$25,000 challenge which also begins today, the AU$100,000 challenge that begins on February 7 and the whopping AU$250,000 challenge that rounds off the festival from February 9-10.
You can follow the big events as they progress right here by staying tuned to our Daily Rewind updates throughout next week.
The History of the Aussie Millions
Previously known as the Australasian poker championship, the festival began way back in 1998 whenthe first $1,100 buy-in edition of the event attracted just 74 players. It's certainly come a long way since Alex Horowitz pocketed the inaugural winner's prize of $25,900.
The name was officially changed to 'Aussie Millions' in 2001 and in 2003, the same year as the Moneymaker initiated poker boom, the event hit the global stage attracting 122 entrants for a prize pool of $1.2m. Englishman Peter Costa became the first Non-Australian champion that year, pocketing $394,870.
From there, the number of entrants began to spike, and so did the buy-in. In 2005, a record 263 players paid $10,000 each to play in the event and the first $1,000,000 prize was won by Australian Jamil Dia.
2006 saw the event almost double in size, in no small part due to the fact that local hero Joe Hachem won the WSOP Main Event the previous year and ignited a poker boom in Australia.
Gus Hansen is arguably the most famous champion, his victory came in 2007. The Great Dane took home $1.5m for his efforts having battled through the largest ever field of 747 players - an incredible 70% increase from the year before. This event was also filmed by Fox Sports, and with the help of Hansen's profile, the ten episode series was met with great success.
In 2009, Russian young gun Alex Kostritsyn managed to beat tournament poker juggernaut Erik Seidel heads-up to take the title. His victory was followed by a wave of home grown talent shining through, as Australian players took the crown for the next four years.
That run was then broken in last year's event by Malaysian Mervin Chan, who took home $1.6m as well as a Chrysler 300C, trophy and the Aussie Millions diamond bracelet for surviving another mammoth field of 629 entrants.
| Aussie Millions Main Event History | |||
| Year | Number of Entrants | Champion | First Prize |
| 1998 | 74 | Alex Horowitz | $25,900 |
| 1999 | 109 | Milo Nadalin | $38,150 |
| 2000 | 109 | Leo Boxell | $65,225 |
| 2001 | 101 | Sam Korman | $53,025 |
| 2002 | 66 | John Maver | $150,000 |
| 2003 | 122 | Peter Costa | $394,870 |
| 2004 | 133 | Tony Bloom | $426,500 |
| 2005 | 263 | Jamil Dia | $1,000,000 |
| 2006 | 418 | Lee Nelson | $1,295,800 |
| 2007 | 747 | Gus Hansen | $1,500,000 |
| 2008 | 780 | Alexander Kostritsyn | $1,650,000 |
| 2009 | 681 | Stewart Scott | $2,000,000 |
| 2010 | 746 | Tyron Krost | $2,000,000 |
| 2011 | 721 | David Gorr | $2,000,000 |
| 2012 | 659 | Oliver Speidel | $1,600,000 |
| 2013 | 629 | Mervin Chan | $1,600,000 |
