A Look at the 2003 Aussie Millions: The “Silver Fox” Wins Main Event
By today’s standards, the maiden Aussie Millions was quite small. Aside from the Main Event, the largest buy-in of the series’ 10 events was AUD$5,000, modest compared to the AUD$250,000 tournament that debuted last year. That first year was comprised mainly of players from the South Pacific, as well as a smattering of pros from the United Kingdom including Harry Demetriou, Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers, and Lucy Rokach. In addition, a few Americans traveled to Melbourne including Erik Seidel, who has since become a regular at the Aussie Millions.
2003 Aussie Millions Results
| Event | Winner |
|---|---|
| $360 Pot-Limit Hold’em | Luke Chezick (NZ) |
| $360 Limit Hold’em | Carlo Citrone (U.K.) |
| $1,500 Limit Hold’em | Michael Tomeny (USA) |
| $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | Sherkhan Fernood (Afghanistan) |
| $5,000 Heads-up No Limit Hold’em | George Mamacas (Australia) |
| $200 NLHE Pioneers Event | Paul Pedersen (NZ) |
| $1,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em | Sherkhan Fernood (Afghanistan) |
| $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo | Mel Judah (Australia) |
| $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | Lucy Rokach (U.K.) |
| $10,500 NLHE Main Event | Peter Costa (U.K.) |
The first Aussie Millions Main Event attracted 122 players and created a prize pool of AUD$1,220,000. The final table ended up being a battle between Australia and the U.K., with the former having five runners in contention against the latter’s four. Appropriately, Leo Boxell of Australia squared off against the U.K.’s Peter Costa in a heads-up match considered one of the best in Aussie Millions history. It contained 14 all-in bets and in the end, the Englishman, nicknamed “Silver Fox,” took down the AUD$394,870 prize and became the first Aussie Millions champion.
Costa, who was known by many through his appearances on Late Night Poker, was certainly the big story from that first year, but it is also worth noting that two of the Hendon Mob’s four members (Ram Vaswani and Joe Beevers) made the final table, and another member, Barny Boatman, bubbled in 10th place.
Unfortunately Costa was unable to make it to this year's Aussie Million.
2003 Aussie Millions Main Event Results
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $10,500 | 122 | $1,220,000 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Peter Costa (U.K.) | $394,870 |
| 2nd | Leo Boxell (Australia) | $225,640 |
| 3rd | Harry Demetriou (U.K.) | $124,640 |
| 4th | Sam Khouiss (Australia) | $101,538 |
| 5th | Joe Cabret (Australia) | $78,974 |
| 6th | Ram Vaswani (U.K.) | $67,696 |
| 7th | Martin Comer (Australia) | $56,410 |
| 8th | Erich Kollmann (Austria) | $45,128 |
| 9th | Joe Beevers (U.K.) | $33,846 |