Toby Lewis Wins Record-Breaking Aussie Millions Main Event

This year’s Aussie Millions Main Event attracted a record sized field, with 800 players entering the A$10,600 tournament to create a prize pool worth A$8 million. One week later, and it was UK player Toby Lewis who managed to best his fellow competitors, including Switzerland’s Stefan Huber heads-up, to claim the title and a first place prize of A$1,458,198 ($1,156,205 USD).
Following a victory which pushes his career earnings to $4,379,236, the 28-year-old pro reflected upon feeling calm and relaxed going into the final table, and as he later explained:
“It’s probably the least amount [pressure] I’ve ever felt heading into a major final table. I’ve been working really hard on my game lately, more than ever. I just felt really comfortable. I had an understanding of the players I was playing against.”
Lewis entered the final stretch as the chip leader, and the most experienced player at the final table. Lewis (10c-6c) then called and proceeded to eliminate a short-stacked Mike Del Vecchio (Qs-5s) who went all-in on an As-10h-6s flop, with a harmless Jc and 8h subsequently falling on turn and river.
At this stage, Lewis had managed to pull further away from his remaining competitors with around two-thirds of the chips still in play, although following Chul-Hyon Park’s departure in fourth Lewis, Stefan Huber and Espen Solaas were all fairly even in stack sizes. This led to a deal being agreed in which Lewis locked up A$1,383,198, while Espen Solaas secured A$1,177,103 and Stefan Huber A$909,699, leaving A$75,000 for the ultimate champion.
Soon after, Lewis (K-K) eliminated Espen Solaas (A-9) to take a 2-to-1 lead against Huber into heads-up play, with the contest decided 16 hands later after Lewis (Qd-10d) and Huber (As-8d) went all-in on a Qs-Qh-8h-7s board. A 5s appeared on the river to conclude the competition with Stefan Huber finishing the runner-up, and Toby Lewis crowned champion.
After collecting his $1,156,653 top prize, Lewis reflected upon the equity deal he had struck with Huber and Solaas earlier on, stating:
“Obviously, I was over the moon. I have a lot of respect for both of those guys. These spots don’t come around very often, so I wanted to make sure I realized a good amount of equity. I would have liked to have taken a little bit more. But, Espen played a very hard deal.”
Final Table Results (US$):
1: Toby Lewis $1,156,653
2: Stefan Huber $721,579
3: Espen Solaas $933,686
4: Chul-Hyon Park $372,807
5: Mike Del Vecchio $293,486
6: Ben Richardson $237,962
7: Johan Schumacher $186,403