Malcolm Trayner Wins Resurrected Aussie Millions Main Event

For more than 20 years, the Crown Australian Poker Championships stood as one of the most famous tournaments in the world. After 2020, the Aussie Millions—as it is best known and now officially titled—went dormant

Like a phoenix, the Aussie Millions rose from the ashes in 2026, crowning Australian Malcolm Trayner as its triumphant main event champion. The Brisbane native outlasted a field of 770 entrants to win a $995,183 first-place prize, following a three-way deal. Fellow Australians Dean Blatt (2nd, $720,052), and Dejan Boskovic (3rd, $663,142), each earned career-best results following the ICM chop.

Trayner is no stranger to the poker spotlight. In 2024, Trayner outlasted a staggering 18,403 entries in one of the biggest World Series of Poker bracelet event fields of all time to win the WSOP Mystery Millions bounty event for $1 million.

Two years later, Trayner matched that result on Australian soil. He joins the likes of Bryn Kenney (2019), Toby Lewis (2018), Ari Engel (2016), Alex Kostritsyn (2008), Gus Hansen (2007), and Tony Bloom (2004) among the Aussie Millions champion’s gallery.

“I’ve dedicated my life to poker the last eight years,” Trayner told PokerNews’ Dan O’Hair. “People often see the wins, but they don’t see the grind and they don’t see the losing months. Winning something like this just means an unbelievable amount to me. I can’t express how much it means to me to win the most prestigious tournament in Australia.”

With his Aussie Millions main event win, Trayner earned 2,280 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his second qualifying result of 2026. As a result, Trayner cracked the top 20 in the POY standings, significantly improving his standing on the yearlong leaderboard presented by CoinPoker.

The Aussie Millions Returns

Across three starting flights, 702 players put up the AUD$10,600 buy-in for the Aussie Millions main event. Day 2 entries pushed the total field to 770, the fifth-largest main event in the series’ storied history. That created a prize pool of AUD$7,700,000 ($5,544,000).  Poker players from around the world joined a healthy turnout from Australians, including NBA player Josh Giddey, a guard for the Chicago Bulls. While Giddey bagged chips for day 2 of the tournament, he ultimately fell short of making the money.

A total of 95 players finished in the money, including 2005 WSOP main event champion Joe Hachem (50th), and his son, James (89th). Multi-time WSOP Circuit winner Maxwell Young (79th), three-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy (56th), and 2018 WSOP main event final tablist Alex Lynskey (42nd) all played deep into the money, as well.

2025 WPT Australia champion Alan Pham (35th), and bracelet winners Sam Higgs (26th), Toby Joyce (23rd), and Andrew Hinrichsen (13th) made serious plays for a final table appearance before falling just short. The last non-Australian standing was American Scott Stewart. The 2024 World Poker Tour World Championship winner fell one spot short of day 5, settling for eighth place.

When seven-handed play kicked off, Boskovic held a slight lead over Trayner and Sheldon Mayer. Blatt began as one of two short stacks, but managed to hang around until picking up an early double through Boskovic, and another through Ricky Vikas, to surge in the chip counts.

The Path To Victory

The table remained seven-handed through the first break, but Boskovic finally broke the seal with the first elimination. His pocket nines were racing against Kanaan Youkhanna’s (7th – $152,460) A♣J♥, until a K♦K♥9♥ flop provided an immediate and decisive outcome.

❌ Kanaan Youkhanna eliminated in 7th place!

Not even a sweat for Youkhanna in the @CrownPoker #AussieMillions26 Main Event, as Dejan Boskovic flops a BOAT to send the Australian out in 7th place for A$211,750. pic.twitter.com/nwwJALQUs2

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) May 10, 2026

Despite picking up that pot, Boskovic’s stack still paled in comparison to Trayner’s, as the latter wielded his chip-leading stack effectively during the early action. Both Ricky Vikas and Patrick Barba saw their stacks reduced to just a few big blinds, and Barba’s was the first to hit empty. Mayer and Blatt played a three-way all-in with Barba, checking down an A♦4♦4♠6♣7♣ runout. All three players shared a nine, and while no one connected to the board, Blatt’s K♦9♦ was good enough to take down the pot with king high, eliminating Barba in sixth place ($194,040).

Blatt continued his ascent by taking out Vikas in fifth place ($249,480). Blatt’s A♣J♣ made a full house by the turn of an A♥J♠7♦A♦10♠ runout, earning him another key pay jump while padding his stack.

To this point, Trayner had built his chip lead without landing any knockout blows. That changed when Trayner turned trip fives to eliminate Mayer in fourth place ($335,966), taking all of Mayer’s chips on a river shove.

Wheeling And Dealing

The final three players divvied up the remaining prize money, making a modified ICM deal in which both Blatt and Boskovic gave Trayner an extra AUD$25,000 from their respective ICM-calculated numbers.

Despite all of the money being spoken for, the remaining players battled hard for the trophy and the title. Trayner’s lead would not be touched, though. Boskovic went out first, running his K♠J♠ into Trayner’s K♦Q♠. Blatt nearly pulled off the miracle comeback for the trophy, spiking a ten to turn A♣10♦ into a winner against Trayner’s A♦J♣.

🏆 THE WINNING HAND!

Malcolm Traynor emerges victorious from a rollercoaster heads-up in the @CrownPoker #AussieMillions26 Main Event to take home the title and A$1,382,198 after the players agreed to a three-handed ICM deal.

GG’s Malcolm! 👏 pic.twitter.com/O173zc9tU3

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) May 10, 2026

That pot gave Blatt a lead of more than 6:1, but Trayner was determined not to let the title slip away. Trayner doubled twice and then ultimately won a coin flip with pocket sevens against Blatt’s A♣10♣ to secure the final victory.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: PokerNews / Crown Casino.