Aussie Poker Legends Take on $5,000 Challenge as Ant-Man Rules

The two poker greats at the final table of the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Aussie Millions Challenge, Kahle Burns and Michael Gathy, had six WSOP bracelets between them. At a dramatic finale to the event at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, however, Joseph Antar reigned supreme as he outlasted more experienced professionals to book a famous win and the biggest victory of his career Down Under.

The Aussie Millions Returns in Style

With a raft of well populated events, the 2026 Aussie Millions has come back with a bang and the final table of their latest event proved it. Attracting players like the four-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy from Belgium and home country hero Kahle Burns, the Aussie Millions is back on the map. Burns himself has two WSOP bracelets, including the €25,000 NLHE High Roller at the 2019 WSOP Europe series, and his appearance at the Crown Casino symbolised the series’ resurgence.

The $5,000 NLHE Aussie Millions Challenge saw 464 entries and that meant 55 players made the money. Plenty of those were local hopefuls who could return home with good news of how their poker weekend made them money, but others travelled from further afield to build their bankrolls, among them the U.S. player Scott Stewart, who won $7,400 as a min-cash.

Others to win money outside the nine-handed final table included Matthew Wakeman (48^th for $7,400), Japanese player Masato Yokosawa (34^th for $8,100), Canada’s Patrick Drivell (29^th for $9,000), and the 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem, who won $11,300 in 23^rd place, a touch less than the $7.5m he banked in 2005 as the latest world champion in Las Vegas.

Sweet Sent Packing as Gathy Grabs Straight

When the final table began, the chip leader was the Aussie poker legend Kahle Burns on 22.8m, the equivalent of 76 big blinds, but it was a mighty close race. The eventual winner Joseph Antar (74BB) and Vincent Wan (72BB) were close behind and that made for a wide open final. The first player to depart was Thijs Hilberts, who won $43,755 when his pocket eights couldn’t hold against the ace-nine of Antar, an ace landing on the turn to give the champion-in-waiting a crucial early elimination.

Australian fans on the rail had five potential home country winners to cheer on but lost one of that number in eighth place when Troy Sweet cashed for $57,630. On a board showing K-9-8-J, Sweet moved all-in and was ahead when Michael Gathy (below) called with king-ten. That was until a queen on the river gave the four-time WSOP champion a straight and sent Sweet to the rail.

China’s sole representative at the final table was Xiaosheng Zheng and he cashed for $72,570 in seventh place. All-in from the big blind automatically, he lost to Joseph Antar’s king-high, as Zheng’s ten-seven caught nothing on the queen-high board. Next to go was the previously powerful Wan, who won $87,510 when his top pair was no match for Burns’ rivered straight, as only five players remained in the hunt for the title.

Legends Lose Out as Antar Ascends

With five players left, two very big names were the ones to watch, as Kahle Burns and Michael Gathy had negotiated the early stages to sit inside the top three spots. That meant nothing to the cards, however, and they both missed out by cashing in fourth anf fifth respectively.

The four-time bracelet winner Michael Gathy’s event ended when the Belgian’s king-queen fell to Jennifer Cassell’s ace-jack, earning him a cash of $108,955. Soon, Burns joined him on the rail as the man with the chip lead with five players left was on the rail in fourth for $141,725. All-in with pocket sevens on a flop of T-6-2, Burns had been outflopped by Antar, whose ‘Texas Dolly’ held through turn and river to win a pivotal pot on his way to victory.

An ill-time bluff from Michael Tomeny was called by Antar and shortly afterwards, the chip leader had all of Tomeny’s stack. Tomeny correctly called off his chips with king-ten when Antar had shoved pre-flop with nine-seven but a board of J-7-3-7-5 signalled Tomeny’s tournament was over in third for a score of $188,895.

When heads-up began, Antar’s stack of 83.5 million dwarfed Jennifer Cassell’s pile of 32.4m chips, but the latter caught up a little before the decisive hand played out. A raised pot saw a board of J-3-2-5-7 fall before Antar moved all-in, putting Cassell to the ultimate test. In the end, she clicked the call button with ace-seven but it was a flawed hero-call as Antar turned over slow-played pocket aces for the perfect trap.

Cassell, superb throughout, earned a stunning $290,280 as runner-up, but it was left to Antar and friends to celebrate with a top prize of $482,405 and the Aussie Millions trophy to show for his efforts.

The Champion in His Own Words

“I was never trying to get too attached to the idea I was going to win it or anything.”

After getting over the line, a relieved Antar was almost speechless as he celebrated by far the best day of his poker career so far.

“It means it all,” he said. “This is what you play tournaments for, to win trophies. [I’m] stoked to run as well as I did and I played all right. I felt like I was running really well, but I was never trying to get too attached to the idea I was going to win it or anything, because poker’s pretty volatile like that. I just tried to stay aware of the situations I was in and what was happening.”

It’s fair to say that Antar’s ability to stay in the moment was his superpower and it formed the latest in a series of tournament results that have inspired the former cash game player to switch to tournament poker on a more permanent basis.

“I’ve been studying tournaments for the past couple of years and that’s helped a lot,” he said. “I think my cash background gives me an edge in the early stages; I feel very comfortable in those spots. And then yeah, it’s just all come together.”

The return of the Aussie Millions festival has obviously been terrific for Antar (below) personally, but he’s more enthused about what it means to the Aussie poker industry and the wider game.

“It’s so important, because these events were the reason I was playing at the start. It’s your dream [to play] the bigger events. When I started in pub poker, I wanted to someday play them. It’s great that it’s back. Hopefully bigger and more events [are coming] in the future for Aussie Millions.”