button in SafariAFL President Bests AFL Star in Aussie Millions Celebrity Challenge for Charity
The 2026 Aussie Millions Poker Championship officially returned to the felt inside the Crown Melbourne poker room on Thursday night, opening in style with an invite-only Celebrity Challenge for Charity.
The night concluded with a $25,000 donation to Street Side Medics, made via the Crown Resorts Foundation, marking a meaningful start to the first Aussie Millions festival held since 2020.
A field of 24 VIPs took their seats in a fast-paced hyper-turbo tournament, with trophies awaiting both the winner and runner-up. The lineup featured a mix of celebrities, elite poker professionals, media personalities, and Crown leadership.
(And yes, there may have been a few champagne corks flying along the way).
Among those spotted in the field were Andrew Bassat, Tom Hawkins, Jackson Warne, Martin Pakula, Agostino Giramondo, Dimitri Macarenhas, Campbell Brown, Eli Katoa, Glen Boss, Jason Richardson, and Van Marcus.
Australia’s poker royal family was also well represented, with Joe and Jeanie Hachem joined by Tony, James and Antonia Hachem, alongside Street Side Medics CEO Nic Brown, who later joined Crown executives David Tsai and Ed Domingo for the closing donation presentation.
For a moment, it looked like Joe — still Australia’s only WSOP Main Event champion — looked like he might've repeated his WSOP heroics.
The 2005 world champion built momentum quickly and appeared poised to spin up a chip-leading stack before disaster struck. His turned set of eights ran into a rivered flush, leaving him short and unable to recover.
With Joe sidelined, the responsibility of carrying the Hachem banner shifted to James and Antonia, both of whom navigated their way to the final table. Antonia’s run ended in one of the opening hands of the FT, while James pushed deeper into contention before eventually bowing out in fifth place.
That set the stage for a fitting finale between two figures well known in Australian sporting circles.
Andrew Bassat, co-founder of recruitment giant Seek Limited and current president of St Kilda Football Club, squared off heads-up against Tom Hawkins, a Crown Ambassador and one of the most accomplished players in the history of the Geelong Football Club, where he spent his entire 17-year career becoming one of the sport’s most prolific scorers.
Hawkins held the early advantage going into heads-up play and appeared to be closing in on victory but a pair of timely double-ups flipped the momentum. The final hand saw Bassat’s ten-nine offsuit river a pair to overcome Hawkins’ king-four suited to bring proceedings to a close.
