PokerStars and Crown Casino Team Up for Australasian Poker Championship

| Published: Mar 14, 2003

By Dan Goldman

It was a combination made in heaven for poker players. First, imagine a picturesque locale far south of the equator, where summer begins on Dec. 22. Then, picture a casino with 24-hour gaming action, a five-star hotel, 50 (that's right - 50) restaurants, 30 bars, 60 upscale shops, a world-class spa, a 16-screen movie theater, and a virtual-reality arcade. Got the picture?

Now, add 22 tables of great poker action and mix in a million-dollar tournament series, and you have the Crown Casino Australasian Poker Championship 2003, known to many as the Aussie Millions.

This was the fourth year for the Australasian Poker Championship, and while Crown Casino had achieved significant success with this event in the past, it pulled out all stops this year to put the event on a par with the world's largest poker tournaments. This effort included aggressively pursuing players from all over the world - both brick-and-mortar casino and online players. Enter PokerStars, a fast-growing online poker site that hosted an online tournament last July that featured a prize pool of $809,000.

PokerStars has developed a reputation for attracting large audiences for online tournaments. When the company first heard of Crown's plans for the Aussie Millions, it saw an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate with a major brick-and-mortar casino to benefit players, PokerStars, and Crown Casino equally.

"We at Crown had very high expectations for the Australasian Poker Championship, and wanted to attract an international audience," said John Parker, poker operations manager for Crown Casino. "When PokerStars approached us about holding online events to qualify players, it made perfect sense to us, as they were able to make players from around the world aware of our event, and created excitement for months before the cards were actually in the air."

PokerStars started by buying five $10,000 seats (U.S. dollar value of about $5,700) for the main event. Then it added airfare for two, accommodations, and cash, making the total value of each seat more than $12,000. PokerStars then ran a series of freeroll tournaments. Players "bought in" to these events by using Frequent Player Points (FPPs) that they earned by playing in live games and tournaments. For as little as 100 FPPs, a player could enter a first-round event to win a trip to Melbourne and a chance at winning a share of a prize pool expected to exceed $1 million (AUD - Australian dollars). The company then ran $30 and $60 online satellite events for players to win additional seats in the Aussie Millions main event.

"The Aussie Millions was a terrific opportunity for all of us," said Steve Morrow, cardroom manager for PokerStars. "We knew that our players would be excited at the prospect of winning a trip to Australia, and we were sure we could contribute a substantial number of entrants to the $10,000 (AUD) main event. So, we put together an aggressive schedule of events - and we succeeded. PokerStars provided almost 20 percent of the field for the Aussie Millions main event with the 22 players we sent."

On Jan. 1, PokerStars players and others from around the world began to converge on Melbourne for the 11-day tournament series. The elegant Crown Entertainment Center on the south bank of the Yarra River played host to some of the top players from around the world for this 10-event tournament.

Crown conducted a variety of satellites for all events, including daily one-table satellites and supersatellites for the main event. The schedule included a unique and entertaining fast-action event, dubbed the "SuperSonic Satellite," in which players competed for $1,070 supersatellite seats in a no-limit, must-raise, single-table event with a buy-in of $115. These satellites typically took less than 45 minutes to play, and provided an entertaining break from the high-limit action.

World-class players from around the world, including World Series of Poker bracelet winner Erik Seidel and European champions Peter Costa and Barney Boatman, came to pit their skills against players from 25 countries.

The tournament took on a truly multinational flavor from the very beginning. The final table of the first event, while dominated by Australian players, included three Brits and one Belgian player; the final table of event No. 2 included players from four countries; and by event No. 3, five countries were represented, including Afghanistan's Sherkan Farnood, who went on to win two subsequent events. A record eight countries were represented at the final table in event No. 4. In all, players from 16 countries made final tables at the Aussie Millions.

The stage was set for the final table of the main event, with 122 players competing for a total prize pool of $1.22 million (AUD - more than $700,000 USD). After 12 hours of play on day No. 1, 18 players were in the money and ready to compete for a first-place prize of about $230,000 (USD). The final 18 included five players who qualified through PokerStars events; in fact, PokerStars players won nearly $300,000 (AUD) in various events during the Aussie Millions.

When the dust finally settled, Peter Costa emerged as the champion of the Australasian Poker Championship. Indeed, the Australasian Poker Championship is now on the map as one of poker's premier events.