button in Safari'Rollercoaster Ride' Ends in Glory for Aussie Millions Champion Trayner
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Six years after the lights went dark on one of poker’s most iconic festivals, the Aussie Millions Poker Championship 2026 Presented by CrownBet brought the series back to life and defied all expectations.
The long-awaited revival delivered massive turnouts throughout the schedule, and the $10,600 Main Event was no exception as 770 entrants turned out to chase Aussie Millions glory — good for the fifth-largest Main Event field in series history.
After five hard-fought days on the felt, it was Australia’s own Malcolm Trayner who emerged as the first champion of the new era of Aussie Millions. Following a dominant performance at the final table, Trayner captured a career-best $1,382,198 AUD score and etched his name into Aussie Millions history.
Aussie Millions 2026 Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malcolm Trayner | Australia | $1,382,198* |
| 2 | Dean Blatt | Australia | $1,000,072* |
| 3 | Dejan Boskovic | Australia | $921,030* |
| 4 | Sheldon Mayer | Australia | $466,620 |
| 5 | Ricky Vikas | Australia | $346,500 |
| 6 | Patrick Barba | Australia | $269,500 |
| 7 | Kanaan Youkhanna | Australia | $211,750 |
*Denotes three-way deal
A "Rollercoaster" Victory
Immediately after his victory, Trayner spoke exclusively to PokerNews and described his win as "unbelievable."
"I can't express how much it means to me to win the most prestigious tournament in Australia."
"I thought I was going to lose heads up," he admitted. "It was such a rollercoaster ride."
The last time the Aussie Millions took place, Trayner was grinding $300 buy-in tournaments in Sydney.
"I've dedicated my life to poker the last eight years. 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."
Final Table Action
A muted start saw the final tablists trade small pots in the first level of play and it took about an hour until the first substantial pot occurred. In the hand, Patrick Barba, who entered the final table as the short stack, bled down to about seven big blinds and then shoved preflop with ace-jack. He was looked up by Sheldon Mayer in the big blind with queen-six and scored a double up after pairing his ace to get back in contention.
Blatt then scored a couple of key double ups to avoid elimination, first after winning a race against Dejan Boskovic and again after picking up Cowboys against Ricky Vikas' Big Slick and holding.
Despite the slow action, Trayner asserted himself with well-timed aggression and took down more than his fair share of small pots to pull into a substantial chip lead seven-handed.
The first elimination of the day finally occurred after Kanaan Youkhanna moved in preflop with ace-jack and lost a coin flip against Boskovic's pocket nines — leaving Trayner and Boskovic both well ahead of the pack.
Shortly thereafter, Vikas found himself on the short stack after turning top pair against Boskovic's set and paying off a few value bets. However, Vikas bounced back with a fortunate double up after getting all in preflop with eight-seven suited and making a flush against Blatt, who flopped trip tens holding ace-ten.
Far and away the short stack, Barba then committed his last few remaining chips with rags and ended up losing to Blatt with just king-high in a three-way showdown between himself, Blatt, and Mayer.
Just a few hands later, having secured a nice pay jump, Vikas moved all in over the top of a raise by Trayner holding jack-ten suited. Blatt woke up with ace-jack suited in the big blind and four-bet jammed to isolate. Trayner complied by folding and Vikas couldn't improve — forcing him to settle for a fifth-place finish.
With none of the players particularly short, four-handed play opened up the door for plenty of postflop action, and it didn't take long for the next big spot to play out. Holding queen-jack, Mayer opened on the button and Trayner peeled the flop with five-four. Both players flopped a pair on the flop, but Trayner turned trips to pull into the lead. After calling a turn bet, Mayers was faced with a shove on the river holding top pair and couldn't get away — sending him to the rail in fourth.
After the elimination of Mayer in fourth place, the tournament was paused as the three remaining players discussed a potential deal.
At that time, Trayner held the chip lead with 26,025,000 chips, more than double Blatt's chip count (11,325,000), with Boskovic sitting in third (8,850,000).
The original payouts were as follows:
| Place | Payout (AUD) |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,667,050 |
| 2 | $1,001,000 |
| 3 | $635,250 |
Following a brief discussion, the trio agreed to an ICM deal. In addition, both Blatt and Boskovic agreed that each would give $25,000 to Trayner, leading to the following modified payouts:
| Player | Chip Count | ICM Deal Payouts | Adjusted Deal Payouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malcolm Trayner | 26,025,000 | $1,332,198 | $1,382,198 |
| Dean Blatt | 11,325,000 | $1,025,072 | $1,000,072 |
| Dejan Boskovic | 8,850,000 | $946,029 | $921,030 |
It was also agreed that they would play on for the trophy, ring, and title of Aussie Millions champion.
When action got back underway, Trayner went straight to work and extended his chip lead with a series of aggressive plays. Blatt and Boskovic then traded places as the short stack a couple of times until eventually Boskovic took a stand against Trayner holding king-jack suited. Unfortunately for Boskovic, Trayner had a dominating king-queen and held up to get the tournament down to heads-up.
Heads-Up For Aussie Millions Glory
Trayner sat with a nearly 4:1 chip lead against Blatt at the start of their duel, but Blatt still had plenty of fight left in him.
Blatt closed the gap after a bit of jousting, first by making a flush and then by getting Trayner to bluff at the pot when Blatt held a full house.
Not long after, Blatt and Trayner got into a preflop raising war that ended with Blatt all in for his tournament life with ace-ten against Trayner's ace-jack. The flop left Trayner two cards from becoming the champion, but the turn paired Blatt's ten to award him a massive double up and the lead.
Down but not out, Trayner quickly found his way back into the lead after doubling up twice. First by picking up Big Slick and getting all in preflop against Blatt's ace-six and holding, and then by winning a flip holding ace-five against Blatt's pocket threes.
Two hands later, it was all over. Blatt looked down at ace-ten and opened the action, only for Trayner to shove over the top with pocket sevens. Blatt quickly committed the rest of his stack, but the board ran out clean for Trayner — sealing the victory and crowning the first Aussie Millions Main Event champion in six years.
