Bodog Beat

The 2009 Aussie Millions poker tournament series os scheduled to kick off on January 9. (Image courtesy of crownpoker.com)

Even though there's still one WPT event and an LAPT event to get through before we're officially done with 2008, details have already been released for the first major poker tournament of the new year, the 2009 Aussie Millions.

The 18-event tournament series will kick off on January 9th at Melbourne's Crown Casino with a $1,000 No Limit Holdem event with subsequent tournaments then ranging up to the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Holdem Championship event on January 18 and the high-rolling $100,000 No Limit Holdem Challenge the day before.

Here is the full schedule:

Jan 9 - $1,000+100 No-Limit Holdem
Jan 11 - $1,000+50 PokerPro No-Limit Holdem
Jan 12 – $230+20 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Jan 13 – $1,000+100 Limit Holdem
Jan 14 – $1,000+100 H.O.R.S.E.
Jan 15 – $1,000+50 No-Limit Holdem (w/ Rebuys)
Jan 16 – $1,500+150 Feature Event — No-Limit Hold'em (w/ Bounties)
Jan 17 – $100,000+500 No-Limit Holdem Challenge
Jan 18 – $10,000+500 Aussie Millions Main Event (NLHE)
Jan 20 – $5,000+300 Australian Heads-Up Championship
Jan 21 – $1,000+100 Pot-Limit Omaha
Jan 22 – $3,000+250 Pot-Limit Omaha (w/ Rebuys)
Jan 22 – $1,000+100 Mixed Holdem
Jan 23 – $2,000+200 No-Limit Holdem – Six-Handed
Jan 24 – $2,000+200 No-Limit Holdem – Teams Event
Jan 24 - $10,000+200 H.O.R.S.E.
Jan 25 – $1,000+100 Turbo No-Limit Holdem
Jan 26 – $1,000+100 Australian 2-Card Manila Championship (w/ Rebuys)

Last year's championship event drew out 780 entrants to generate a prizepool of $7,758,500 (US$6,819,940). The players at the final table were not necessarily internationally known, with the exception of an eight-time WSOP bracelet winner, poker pro Erik Seidel, who put on a display of poker skill to get to a two hour marathon heads-up match against Alexander Kostritsyn before finally succumbing.

Here are the final table payouts from last year's event:

1. Alexander Kostritsyn – $1,650,000
2. Erik Seidel – $1,000,000
3. Michael Chrisanthopoulos – $700,000
4. Peter Ling – $500,000
5. Nino Marotta – $400,000
6. Antonio Casale – $300,000
7. Peter Mobbs – $225,000

If you want to travel the world playing in international poker tournaments, the head over to Bodog Poker andf check out the $12,000 Players Choice package and qualify online for the WPT, LAPT and even the 2009 WSOP.