POTD #286 In The Aussie Million $100,000 Challenge. My Play is a Challenge
POTD's first trip Down Under.
As I am writing this, the Aussie Millions just ended; as this is being published, it ended 3-4 weeks ago. The Aussie Millions was not a part of the poker calendar from 2021-2025, and it was sorely missed. It’s one of the best stops on tour, and while I did not attend it this May, I always loved going to Melbourne to play at The Crown. I preferred when it was run in January, during Australian summer and Canadian winter. It has been said that during the summer in Melbourne you can experience every season in a day, well in Canadian winter you mostly experience one season in a day and it’s not good. The Aussie Millions Poker tournaments were also run at the same time as the Australian Open tennis tournament, which meant a consolation prize of busting a tournament could be walking half an hour to watch some world-class tennis. The food, hotel and hospitality were all top notch and I assume remain so; I can’t wait to go back.
Looking at Poker News and The Hendon Mob, the 2026 series was mostly a local affair, with almost all tournaments being won by Australians, but the turnout was still great, which is very impressive. The Main Event got 770 runners, a very nice number for a 10k (AUD) freezeout. I bet they will top that number next year. The top 7, and 17 of the top 19, of the Main Event were Australians, and I predict after a successful showing in its return, you’ll see more international players travelling over to Australia next year. I hope they move it back to January, a slower time on the poker calendar, which should bolster fields, but also allow people (me) to see the tennis tournament. To close out this week, I am going to look at a couple of hands I played the last time I travelled down under, in January of 2020, where I had a very nice series and final tabled the $25k and the $50k, but today we’re looking at hand from least successful tournament in Australia, the “$100,000 Challenge,” where I three bulleted and did not cash. Today’s hand is from that final bullet, I flopped top pair top kicker and tried to make things simple, but in the process missed out on getting the most value.
2020 Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge
(6k/12k/12k) (SB/BB/BBA) 250k Starting Stack. Registration is Closed
I make it 26k (334k) UTG7 with A♣️K♠️, Tim Adams (580k) calls in the CO, Michael Zhang (892k) calls in the BB.
Flop (96k) A♦️ Q♥️ 7♥️ : Michael checks, I check, Tim bets 26k, Michael calls, I jam 308k, they both fold.
