Poker is alive and effectively in Australia, with the return of the long-lasting Aussie Hundreds of thousands introduced for April, and the newly minted Melbourne Hundreds of thousands collection smashing ensures at PlayLive, a brand new poker site co-owned by Alex and Kristen Foxen, Jeremy Ausmus, Eric Baldwin, and Abby Merk.
The brand new poker site was launched in April 2025, with co-founders Josh Abady and Bridges Robinson Roe asserting they had been partnering up with the favored poker personalities to create a poker site “by the gamers, and for the gamers.”
It seems the mission was profitable, as PlayLive is rapidly changing into the go-to vacation spot for poker gamers in Melbourne, and the Melbourne Hundreds of thousands is simply the primary of many event collection within the plans for 2026.
Melbourne Hundreds of thousands Is Surpassing Expectations
Once they first opened the doorways of PlayLive again in April, the homeowners might hardly have hoped for the unimaginable success the brand new Melbourne poker site would grow to be in such a brief span of time.
The primary-ever Melbourne Hundreds of thousands collection has attracted a whole bunch of gamers, lots of them hoping to fulfill a few of their poker heroes, and others attracted by the concept of a significant poker collection within the prime January time slot, which has been lacking in Melbourne for a number of years.
The turnout for Melbourne Hundreds of thousands occasions has been distinctive, with lots of the occasions doubling or tripling the assured prize swimming pools, and even the $1,500 Principal Occasion ending up with a prize pool of over $1,000,000, smashing the $500,000 assure.
PlayLive supplied gamers quite a lot of invaluable packages, offering further incentives to play within the collection and proving that the brand new poker site really was a spot “by the gamers, and for the gamers.”
The Melbourne Hundreds of thousands enters its closing week, with a number of thrilling tournaments just like the $50,000 Berserker occasion with a $400 buy-in nonetheless on the schedule. The homeowners have teased an upcoming schedule for the remainder of 2026, which ought to embody related event collection.
PlayLive Launches Its Reside Poker Stream
Melbourne Hundreds of thousands was the right time for PlayLive to launch its long-anticipated reside stream, which can presumably function one of many predominant advertising and marketing instruments for the poker site within the coming years.
The reside stream launched on PlayLive’s new YouTube channel, and we now have already seen each money recreation and event motion from the poker site in actual time.
Options like a four-color deck and a number of digicam angles have made the streams a powerful success to this point, and the presence of poker personalities like Merk and Baldwin within the exhibits offers them numerous potential for future success.
To this point, we now have seen streams of Melbourne Hundreds of thousands motion and a few low-stakes $2/$5 money video games on the streams, however we will anticipate to see larger video games with extra acquainted faces on the PlayLive streams within the close to future.
Aussie Hundreds of thousands Is Again in 2026
Aussie Hundreds of thousands is by far essentially the most iconic poker event collection ever performed in Australia, and in 2026, it’s coming again following a 6-year hiatus.
Only a 15-minute stroll away from PlayLive, on the Crown Melbourne Plaza, Aussie Hundreds of thousands will play out this April for the primary time since 2020.
The poker collection that noticed the likes of Ari Engel and Bryn Kenney triumph within the Principal Occasion and Phil Ivey completely dominate the Tremendous Excessive Rollers can be again on the schedule this 12 months, proving that reside poker in Australia is booming as soon as once more.
Whereas the collection has moved away from its January time slot, which poker followers had been used to for years, the 2026 Aussie Hundreds of thousands ought to nonetheless be an enormous success, with the AUD 10,600 Principal Occasion more likely to entice lots of the world’s most recognizable poker names.
Keep tuned for extra updates on the 2026 Aussie Hundreds of thousands competition because it attracts nearer, and preserve a watch out on PlayLive’s YouTube channel for extra reside poker motion dropped at you straight from Melbourne, Australia.
