Aussie Millions: Antar, Lee Headline Side Event Champions

The Aussie Millions is back at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia after half a dozen years on the shelf. The kickoff event drew over 2,100 entries, and that was just the start. Several other side events have attracted impressive fields, resulting in sizable top prizes for the eventual winners.

The $5,000 AUD no-limit hold’em challenge had 464 entries by the time that registration closed, making for a prize pool worth over $1.5 million USD.

The top 55 finishers all earned a share of that total, with notables like Billy Argyros (19th), 2020 Aussie Millions main event champion Vincent Wan (6th), four-time bracelet winner Michael Gathy (5th), and two-time bracelet winner Kahle Burns (4th) all running deep.

In the end, it was Australia’s own Joseph Antar who emerged victorious with the trophy and the top prize of $347,332 USD. This was the largest score yet for the Sydney resident (pictured above), topping the $160,000 that came with a win in last year’s Australian Poker Open $10,000 AUD event. He now has over $870,000 in recorded scores.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Antar also scored 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2026, but it alone was enough to catapult him inside the top 100 in the overall standings presented by CoinPoker.

Antar closed out the win holding pocket aces, jamming the river with his overpair and receiving a call from Jennifer Cassell’s second pair with an ace kicker. Cassell earned $209,002 as the runner-up.

$5,000 Challenge – Final Table Results

The highest-stakes event on the schedule for 2026 was the $25,000 AUD no-limit hold’em challenge. A 98-entry turnout resulted in a prize pool of nearly $1.7 million USD, with 13 players seeing a return on their investment.

Hun Wei Lee came out on top in the end, defeating Josh Hutchins heads-up to secure the title and the top prize of $469,922. Lee is no stranger to big tournament wins, having taken down a $1,050 pot-limit Omaha bounty event during the 2020 World Series of Poker Online for a bracelet and $161,886. He also won a WSOP International Circuit ring in a $20,000 AUD high roller here in Australia back in 2017, along with $206,581 in prize money. Lee now has almost $2.1 million in lifetime cashes to his name.

“This one feels really, really special,” Lee told PokerNews reporters on the scene. “Aussie Millions has always been a huge event on my calendar. We were deprived of it for six years, and now it’s back— and the numbers have been ridiculous. For a $25,000 event in Australia, we usually get around 30 runners if we’re lucky. But this time we got 98 players, with a lot of strong international competition. I’m really glad to come out on top.”

While foreign contenders did participate, the final table was a decidedly Australian affair. Only Japan’s Kei Tanaka (7th – $80,438) broke up an all-Aussie result.

$25,000 Challenge – Final Table Results

Photo credits: PokerNews / Crown Casino Melbourne.