The $100,000 Challenge Starts Today!
It's not only time for Day 1a of the Main Event today, if you have a AU$100,000 lying around somewhere, you may opt to register for the $100,000 Challenge, the second biggest tournament of the 2016 Aussie Millions poker Championships this week.
This is a three-day tournament with Day 1 starting at 2:10pm today, Day 2 tomorrow, and the final table at Saturday the 30th of January. As there are three starting days for the Main Event, you're guaranteed not to miss a day of any of these two tournaments - they won't overlap.
There's something special about this tournament, something not many tournaments have. The one-hour levels won't set it apart and the nine levels of late registration also aren't unheard of. The one thing that differs this tournament from most others, is that there's a shot clock in effect. Players have 30 seconds to act on their hand, otherwise their cards will be automatically mucked. Each player gets two so called time breaker buttons at the start of each day, which will be worth an additional minute of thinking time when tossed in. These time breaker buttons can't be accumulated through out the tournament, they are forfeited at the end of each day in case they haven't been used.
This tournament wil be live streamed on twitch, hosted by renowned poker caster Jason Somerville. Somerville and Crown Poker have announced that, not only for this event but for all live streamed events this week, hole cards will be shown on a 30-minute delay. The live streamed table will be randomly selected and switched every break. Live streaming of this event starts at 8pm local time, just under 6 hours into the tournament.
A total of 8 levels will be played on Day 1 today. (late) Registration is open for the duration of the entire day, and even extends until after the first level of play of Day 2. This tournament gives players the option to re-enter after busting, also available for everyone till the end of the first level of play on Day 2 (level 9) when blinds will be 2,000/4,000. Levels will be 60 minutes long for the entire tournament and players start with a stack worth 100,000 in chips. The first level will be 200/400 without an ante, meaning players get a 250 big blind stack to start with.
Links- Aussie Millions schedule (.PDF)
- Aussie Millions structure sheets (.PDF)
- Aussie Millions streaming schedule
History
The Aussie Millions started the Super High Roller craze back in 2006. A total of 10 players ponied up the AU$100,000 buy in for the first super high roller of its kind that year. Phil Ivey, Tony G, Michael Sampoerna, Ralph Burd, Tony Bloom, Barry Greenstein, Mike Sexton, Jason Gray, and Jeff Lisandro all came up short that year, it was John Juanda that grabbed the title. Just 10 players entered that first year, but that number increased over the years. Last years winner Richard Yong beat out 69 other players to take the title, netting the rich poker savvy business man AU$1,870,000.
| Year | Entries | Champion | Country | Prize in AU$ | Prize in $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 10 | John Juanda | Indonesia | AU$1,000,000 | $732,901 |
| 2007 | 18 | Erick Lindgren | United States | AU$1,000,000 | $795,279 |
| 2008 | 25 | Howard Lederer | United States | AU$1,250,000 | $1,098,785 |
| 2009 | 23 | David Steicke | Australia | AU$1,200,000 | $852,442 |
| 2010 | 24 | Dan Shak | United States | AU$1,200,000 | $1,107,553 |
| 2011 | 38 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | AU$1,525,000 | $1,508,258 |
| 2012 | 22 | Dan Smith | United States | AU$1,012,000 | $1,041,828 |
| 2013 | 22 | Andrew Robl | United States | AU$1,000,000 | $1,055,699 |
| 2014 | 76 | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | Ukraine | AU$2,000,000 | $1,791,248 |
| 2015 | 70 | Richard Yong | Malaysia | AU$1,870,000 | $1,477,560 |
