Aussie Millions 2006

[OzGary]

After the success of this year's Aussie Millions and the continued growth in poker I think that with a similar/improved marketing push for 2006 it may be possible to achieve 500 starters next year.The problem however, would be the logistics of holding a tournament that big at Crown. To fit 500 tables would take an unacceptably large amount of Crown's floor space, probably requiring encroaching on the upstairs area. Alternatively, a system could be devised where there were 2 day ones, as happened at the WSOP last year. This could help boost the numbers if eliminations from the first day one were permitted to re-enter on the 2nd day one.Another alternative might be to increase the entry fee to $15k or $20k and keep the numbers about the same.Have Crown done any analysis on where the 263 starters came from this year? How many came from each of the on-line sites, local satellites, APA Sydney, APA Adelaide, overseas enticements, cash entries, other sources, etc?Also, on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied were the Crown executives, ie the real decision makers, with the way this years event turned out.

[Blu3B3ar]

Congratulations on your Aussie Millions result, Gary. I agree with your logical suggestion of splitting the first day into two, perhaps greater efforts should be put into marketing the game in the media, there was nothing in the newspapers or TV, I believe. That should be direction of Crown, more active promotion of the game.

[mattp]

I thought the media coverage was great.We had a full colour spread and an interview with Bendigo in a Sydney sunday paper and a spot on ABC news right before the tournament started. There were also snippets in the SMH.What we missed was any hype for the million dollar winner. Understandable that a poker tournamnent is a trivial matter in light of what has happened in the last month.What Gary has asked is interesting - what do the people in charge think, and how can crown accomodate more players given that this year 300 seats was the limit in any case?

[Guest]

Something that i was very suprised with was the allocation of prize money. The 28th-40th 5k prize seemed ok, then 27th to 19th got 10k. Not even there money back.So in a $10,300 entry tournament, with around 260 entrants, you had to place in the top 18 to actually make any money.Would have it not been better to scrap the 28-40 prize and give the 27th to 19th 12.5k giving them and any higher placed entrants a winning payday ?

[Guest]

TO prize-money .allocation of prize-money was changed this year so that a 1st prize of $1.000.000 would be given out ,if prize-money was on a normal scale first prize would of been approx $800.000 .so dollars had to come from 2nd and all other prize-money to get to the magic million.TO gary [who called me all the way to the river benson, lol lol ] increasing to 15 or 20k is a no no.it would mean less auzzies in the field as there would be less satelite winners and so ,approx half the feild this year were from on-line about 55% ,if there was a field of 500 sure 2 first days but no-way should you be able to buy back in on the second day.from joethenuts who sticks up for the local players.

[Bendigo]

I will take any grief being handed out about the payouts. I negotiated the $1Million 1st prize to give me something to go to the press and the online sites with. The Bellagio 1st place payout is normally 38% so with a total of $2,630,000 the $1Million was just a tab over 38% I suspect next year it will be well below 38%.I also pestered Danny to try and push it down and suggested the $5,000 payouts.I believe leaving as many players with a little positive memory on their final days of a trip is a good thing, hence the final day satellite, the party etc.It would be very interesting to find out how many of the following players paid $10,300 to enter. With so many players qualifying through online and B&M satellites a payout of $5,000 on the 2nd last day of their trip may well have been appreciated. 19 John Dalessandri (Australia) AUD$ 10,000 20 Rukhsana Guevarra (Canada) AUD$ 10,000 21 Bill Argyros (Australia) AUD$ 10,000 22 Joe Laruffa (Australia) AUD$ 10,000 23 Robert Rooney (United States of America) AUD$ 10,000 24 Max Donnelly (Australia) AUD$ 10,000 25 Richard Piper (Great Britain) AUD$ 10,000 26 Dominic Italiano (Australia) AUD$ 10,000 27 Robyn Mokvist (Sweden) AUD$ 10,000 28 Fred Ibraham (Canada) AUD$ 5,000 29 Paul Scopetis (Australia) AUD$ 5,000 30 Marc Mitchell (United States of America) AUD$ 5,000 31 Stein Rodseth (Norway) AUD$ 5,000 32 David Tarbet (Great Britian) AUD$ 5,000 33 Mark Demirjian (Lebanon) AUD$ 5,000 34 Henrik Witt (Denmark) AUD$ 5,000 35 Adam Kwiecien (Canada) AUD$ 5,000 36 Trudi Sultana (Australia) AUD$ 5,000 37 John Dwyer (United States of America) AUD$ 5,000 38 Peter Haslam (Great Britain) AUD$ 5,000 39 Don Nyberg (United States of America) AUD$ 5,000 40 Kathy Kolberg (United States of America) AUD$ 5,000