The 2021 Aussie Millions series is the first poker casualty of the global health pandemic in the coming year. Due to COVID-19, the popular annual Australian poker extravaganza is officially postponed. But organizers for the popular event hope to reschedule it for later in the year.
The annual poker event takes place at the Crown Melbourne casino, a top poker hotspot in Australia. On the Aussie Millions Twitter page, poker players found a disappointing note.
"Crown will continue to monitor and review the situation, working closely with the Victorian Government and health authorities to determine if and when such events can be safely revisited. We look forward to scheduling these long-standing annual events when it is deemed safe for us to do so," the letter read.
The 2021 Aussie Millions poker series was scheduled to begin January 4 in Melbourne, Australia. On January 24, the Main Event final table was to run. But COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, so major poker events continue to be canceled.
History of the Aussie Millions
Poker players will miss out on one of the game's greatest spectacles next year if the series ends up being canceled until 2022. The Aussie Millions series has a rich history in poker, dating back to 1998 when it originated as the Australian Poker Championship.
Alex Horowitz, an Australian, won the $1,000 buy-in tournament that year for $25,900. The tournament took off on an international level in 2003 when it became a $10,000 buy-in event dubbed the Crown Australian Poker Championships. That January, 122 players entered, creating a prize pool of $1,220,000, with Peter Costa from England shipping it for $394,870.
By 2005, as poker began to grow exponentially worldwide, the Crown Australian Poker Championships became an international poker sensation. More than 260 players registered for the $10,000 buy-in championship event in 2005. Australian Jamil Dia won it for $1 million, the first seven-figure payout in series history.
Ever since 2005, the champion of the series finale won at least $1.2 million, with the 2009-2011 champs taking home $2 million each. Along the way, some big name pros such as Gus Hansen (2007) and Bryn Kenney (2019) have won the popular event.
In 2014, the Crown Poker Championships became the Aussie Millions Poker Championship. The Aussie Millions series also includes numerous other events for players at just about any bankroll level, from low rollers to high rollers and in-between.
The high roller and super high roller tournaments at the Aussie Millions began in 2007. During the past 13 years, some of the greatest players ever have shipped high rollers in the Land Down Under. Poker legends such as John Juanda, Dan Smith, Sam Trickett, and Erik Seidel have Aussie Millions high roller titles under their belts. But no one has had more success in these events than the great Phil Ivey, who won three super high rollers from 2012-2015 for more than $8.2 million combined.
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