High stake poker players will have a variety of top tournaments to choose from in January which provide them with piles of cash in guaranteed prize money and the opportunity to start their New Year with a nice vacation. Players from around the world will be queuing up for the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure which takes place in the Bahamas from Jan 5 to 16.
The action then moves to Australia as the 2019 Aussie Millions will once again be held at the Crown Melbourne Casino. The tournament was first launched in 1997 and was then called the Australasian Poker Championship. Crown Melbourne played host to the very first edition of the tournament as well.
Aussie Millions Main Event
The 2019 Aussie Millions will feature over 25 events and provide players with a different range of buy-ins starting from $1,150 and going all the way up to $100,000. The 2019 Aussie millions will run from January 15 to February 4, 2019 and will provide non-stop poker action for three weeks.
The highlight as usual will be the A$10,600 Aussie Millions Main Event which guarantees a six-figure payout to first-place finisher. While the A$10,600 buy-in is pretty high, tournament organizers are making sure that every player gets the chance to enter the Main Event by offering them low buy-in satellites which will run throughout the three week poker festival.
Aussie Millions – Lots Of High Roller Action
The Aussie Millions festival has built a reputation over the years of being one of the top tournaments for high rollers. Top poker players from all over the world make it a point to start their year by attending the Aussie Millions.
Among them is 10-time WSOP winner Phil Ivey who bagged three $250K events in 2012, 2014 and 2015, winning A$2 million, A$4 million and A$2.205 million respectively.
Aussie Millions has been running for over two decades now and is billed as the longest-running poker tournament in the Asia-Pacific region. The Main Event also attracts leading poker players and has been won in the past by the likes of Gus Hansen, Ari Angel, Ami Barer, and Alexander Kostrytsin.
Aussie Millions continue to grow in popularity as seen by the 2018 Main Event which surpassed the record set by the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event which attracted a total of 781 entrants.
Toby Lewis from the UK claimed the biggest ever Main Event first-place prize of A$1,458,198 in 2018, as well as a custom-made diamond-encrusted ANTON Jewellery gold bracelet. He topped a record-breaking 800 entries and defeated Mike Del Vecchio and Stefan Huber at the final table. Both players received a share of the A$8,000,000 total prize pool.
Aussie Millions 2019 Schedule and Highlights
While the 2018 edition of the festival was a huge success, the 2019 Aussie Millions is expected to be even bigger.
The festival’s first event will definitely draw early action with a seven-figure guaranteed prize pool. The Opening Event has a $1,150 buy-in. It will have five starting flights, giving players multiple shots to get a share of the A$1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, or claim the six-figure first-place prize.
There will also be four events with big buy-ins. High rollers will battle it out for massive prizes in the A$25K (taking place on Jan 25-26), A$50K (Jan 27-28) and A$100K (Feb 1-2) Challenge. This year’s A$100K Challenge was won by Malaysia’s Michael Lim, with Canadian poker pro Sam Greenwood conquered the ANTON Jewellery $50K Challenge.
A $25K Pot Limit Omaha event is scheduled on the last two days of the festival which is February 3 and 4. Some of the other events include the A$2,500 No Limit Hold’em taking place on Jan 30, a A$1,650 Bounty Event on Jan 26, Tournament of Champions scheduled on Jan 31 with a buy-in of A$1,150, and a A$5,000 Six Max on Feb 2.
Satellite Events To 2019 Aussie Millions
The 2018 Aussie Millions achieved a record number of entries to its satellites, with over half of the 800 entrants winning their Main Event seat from satellite events. The 2019 edition is expected to break that record, with an increasing number of players showing up at the Crown Casino to take part in satellite events.
Daily satellites started to run in November and currently more than 25 percent of satellite winners have already earned their seat into the Main Event. Karl Symonds and Joseph Foleti are among several 2019 Main Event satellite winners.