Many records were broken at the 2008 Crown Australian Poker Championship, and at least one new player was introduced into the top circles of tournament poker players. The annual tournament, commonly referred to as the Aussie Millions, takes place at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. It is the Southern Hemisphere's richest and most prestigious poker tournament. This year, the total prize pool for all events exceeded AUD$10 Million.

The Aussie Millions is known for its innovative and somewhat unorthodox event lineup. This year players could enter a $1,500 + 150 No Limit Hold’Em TEAMS Event, which paid the nine top positions. All winning duos except one were Australian, including Ross Stewart and Alex Williamson who finished in 1st place. The only non-Australians to finish in the money (7th place) were husband and wife Kairit and Imre Leibold from Estonia. Imre has been a professional for several years, and his wife Kairit learned the game from sitting next to her husband during tournaments.

Another crowd favorite was the $1,000 + $100 TURBO No Limit Hold’Em event, where players each have exactly 30 seconds to act. As if Texas Hold’Em is not a fast enough game as it is, the turbo version, with its 30 seconds rule, guarantees fast thrills. Every 40-minute level is action-packed, and the blinds jump up faster than an angry kangaroo (if such a thing exists). Of the 253 entrants, the top 30 positions were paid, with Australian David Lee taking home the first prize.

One tournament that didn’t go as well as the organizers had wished was the AUD$10,000 Buy-In H.O.R.S.E Special Event. This event was added following the recent success of the WSOP US$50,000 H.O.R.S.E World Championship. With its heavy buy-in, the Australian answer to the prestigious WSOP event (that crowns the world’s best all-round poker player of the year) failed to draw many players. With 16 entrants, only the top 4 positions were paid. Another Australian professional, Billy Argyros, finished in 1st place, and got to take home AUD$80,000. Interestingly enough, the other three paid spots, #2 – #4, were all American players from Las Vegas, Nevada.

A strong presence of online players was felt throughout the Aussie Millions Championship. Many players who qualified through online satellite tournaments were seen supporting their sites’ logos on their T-shirts and baseball hats. Titan Poker, the larges poker room on the iPoker Network, sent no less than six players down under to participate in the tournament.

The main event saw a record-breaking 780 entrants. With an AUD$10,000 Buy-In, the Prize Pool totaled an amazing AUD$7,800,000 (you can do the math yourself). This meant yet another southern hemisphere record had been broken. The tournament started on Monday, January 14 and ended only seven days later – on Sunday the 20th. Needless to say, the game was no other than No Limit Texas Hold’Em.

The unlikely winner surprised the poker world with his spectacular and aggressive play. At the age of 21, he was the youngest player to reach the final table. He was also the only European. Now everyone is getting used to his name - Russian Young Gun Alexander Kostritsyn. Kostritsyn is from Moscow, and started playing poker professionally as soon as he turned 18. His best previous result was third place in the 2007 Russian Summer Poker Tournament, a result that was worth US$8,900. Proving that he is worthy of his nickname, Alexander ‘The Great’ Kostritsyn outplayed Erik Seidel, one of the toughest No Limit Hold'Em tournament players in the world. Seidel finished in second place and walked away with AUD$1 Million. Kostritsyn took home AUD$1.65 Million, and made quite a reputation for himself. We all look forward to following him through many other major tournaments.

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