Main Event of 2009 Aussie Millions To Get Underway on Sunday

Published on January 17th, 2009 4:32 am EST

The 2009 edition of the Aussie Millions main event is set to get underway at 12:30 pm local time on Sunday. This works out to an early evening start on Saturday for those of us who are living in North America.

The buy-in for the event will be $10,500 AUD, which works out to about $7,000 USD.

The defending champion of the event is Alexander Kostritsyn. Kostritsyn, known as "PostFlopAction" on Full Tilt Poker, bested Erik Seidel in heads-up play to take down the championship last year. Kostritsyn and Seidel are both planning on taking part in the main event.

In 2007, Gus Hansen outlasted Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke to take down the main event title. Hansen will also be involved in the event this year.

The field is expected to be very large, and by all estimates will top last year's field of 780 players. There will be three Day 1 flights - Day 1A will play on Sunday, Day 1B will play on Monday and Day 1C will play on Tuesday.

On January 21st, the survivors will combine into one field, with the final table taking place on January 24th.

Names such as Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson are all expected to participate in the main event as well.

The Crown Casino has proven to be extremely popular with players, which is a big reason why this event is so well attended. The event does a good job in luring in some of the bigger name in poker with their $100k buy-in tournament, which in turn brings some amateur players into the fold. It also doesn't hurt that it's sunny and warm in Australia right now - many players were just dying for an opportunity to escape the cold of North America.

We'll be keeping an eye on this event as it progresses. Stay tuned to this site for the latest updates.