Poker Tournaments Return to Crown Melbourne
Aussie Millions was one of the most notable gaming casualties of the pandemic. The series last ran in 2020, and in early 2023, Crown Melbourne announced that all poker tournaments were cancelled indefinitely.
There’s finally some good news to report on the poker front. Poker tournaments have now resumed at Crown Melbourne. According to Poker Media Australia, weekly poker tournaments resumed last week, and additional tournaments will be held in the future. Poker at the Crown will be revamped, and future expansion will be based on demand.
Poker Tournaments Make a Comeback at Crown Melbourne
Poker players in Australia received an early Christmas present as Crown Melbourne announced the return of poker tournaments. The first event was held on 29 November and will become a weekly staple at the casino. The event is a $250 buy-in NL Hold’em tournament and will be the first of what the Crown hopes to be many events in the future.
Poker Media Australia was the first to report on the return of tournament poker to Crown. They spoke with Daniel Trubiano, the Table Games Manager, who shared, “Our aim is to [start by bringing] back the weekly tournaments to gauge where our customer base is. Our aim is to bring tournament poker back better than it was.”
What does that mean? It starts by relocating the Crown Poker Room from the Las Vegas Room to Level 1. The casino believes that the relocation will give poker greater visibility to patrons of the casino and provide a greater experience to players.
Trubiano says, “The Las Vegas Room has served a very good tenure for us, but to reinvent the brand there is no doubt we need a complete revamp. A significant change to what we offer is required so we can become a more guest-focused operator on what we deliver.”
The new poker room is expected to be live by the end of 2023. It is also likely that the change in poker room location is due to the adjusted hours of operation of the casino. Crown Melbourne no longer operates 24-7, and the relocation could be a way to minimise costs while giving greater gaming accessibility to players.
No Word On Aussie Millions – Yet
The return of poker tournaments to Crown Melbourne is just the start of what they hope is a resurrection of tournament poker in the area. Trubiano hopes that the return of tournaments is just the start of Crown retaking the throne as king of Australian poker tournaments.
He continues, “It goes hand-in-hand,” he said. “If you want a complete product in terms of poker, you’ve got to run tournaments – there is no doubt about it. We want to show that we run a tournament better than anyone.
We will start with the weekly tournaments but over time we will keep adding. Our train of thought is to engage the player base and find out what they want us to offer.
The future is looking bright for poker at Crown. There is a lot of news to come, and exciting news at that.”
You’ll notice that Trubiano did not speak on the potential for Aussie Millions to return. That is the big question on many people’s minds. Aussie Millions was not just the crown jewel of Australian poker, but it was also one of the premier poker tournaments in the world.
Aussie Millions was one of the first events to fully embrace high-roller tournaments and for years it was the top destination for high-stakes poker players. It effectively helped to kick off the annual poker tournament season.
While we at CasinoAus don’t know the future of Aussie Millions, we can celebrate the return of tournament poker to Crown Melbourne. Now, it is up to players to show their support by patronising the newly revamped Crown Melbourne Poker Room.
