Beer We Go! Joseph Antar Wins Aussie Millions $5,000 Challenge

Over the previous 12 months, Aussie poker professional Joseph Antar has quietly put collectively one of many strongest runs within the nation.

Since April 2025, Antar has achieved a string of spectacular outcomes, together with victories in The Centurian on the APLPT for $39,835 AUD, The Trojan on the 2025 Australian Poker Open for $250,000 AUD, and the Sydney Champs Excessive Curler for $113,823 AUD.

Extra not too long ago, Antar had a runner-up end within the Poker Palace Christmas Cup for $50,000 AUD and a third-place end in The Titan on the 2026 Australian Poker Open for $45,000 AUD.

Nevertheless, that run of success reached new heights on the Aussie Hundreds of thousands Poker Championship 2026 Introduced by CrownBet, the place Antar entered the $5,000 No Restrict Maintain’em Problem and, after three days of play, emerged victorious over a 464-entry discipline to assert the $482,405 AUD prime prize and his first Aussie Hundreds of thousands title.

Aussie Hundreds of thousands $5,000 Problem Remaining Desk Outcomes

Winner’s Response

The victory stands as the biggest of Antar’s profession and got here towards a discipline full of poker expertise. Antar finally outlasted all of them, together with the likes of Kahle Burns, Vincent Wan, Joe Hachem, and Jennifer Cassell (after a troublesome heads-up battle) en path to securing the title and cementing his place as a prime professional on the Australian match circuit.

“That is what you play tournaments for, to win trophies”

Regardless of the magnitude of the victory, Antar remained composed within the moments following his victory and mirrored on what the victory means to him.

“I imply, it means all of it. That is what you play tournaments for, to win trophies,” Antar mentioned. “So yeah — stoked. Stoked to run in addition to I did and I performed alright. However yeah, it was cool.”

Whereas many gamers would possibly level to a defining second or turning level throughout a deep run, Antar as an alternative credited a gradual strategy and a deal with course of over final result.

“Not likely,” Antar mentioned when requested if there was some extent he felt the match was his to win. “I simply felt like I used to be working rather well, however I used to be by no means making an attempt to get too hooked up to the thought I used to be going to win it or something, as a result of poker’s fairly risky like that. I simply tried to remain conscious of the conditions I used to be in and what was taking place.”

Antar credit his current run of outcomes to a transition from money video games to tournaments over the previous two years.

“I’ve primarily been a money participant, however I’ve been finding out tournaments for the previous couple of years and that’s helped quite a bit,” he mentioned. “I believe my money background provides me an edge within the early phases — I really feel very comfy in these spots. After which yeah, it’s simply all come collectively. I’ve run effectively too.”

Lastly, Antar took time to emphasise the significance of getting marquee occasions just like the Aussie Hundreds of thousands return for gamers within the area.

“I believe it is so necessary often because these occasions had been the explanation I used to be enjoying firstly. It is your dream of enjoying the larger occasions. After I began in pub poker, I wished to sometime play them. So yeah, it is nice that it is again. Hopefully larger and extra occasions sooner or later for Aussie hundreds of thousands as effectively.”

Day 3 Motion

Simply 26 hopefuls entered The Crown seeking to make a run on the closing desk and grow to be the newest Aussie Hundreds of thousands champion, with Luke Martinelli by far and away the chip chief.

Ehsan Amiri obtained off to a sizzling begin after doubling up thrice throughout the first two ranges of play, together with a hand the place gained a race towards Day 1 chip chief Corey Kempson to go away him with simply two massive blinds. Kempson was unable to rally and was among the many first batch of eliminations.

Aussie Hundreds of thousands Ambassador and WSOP Important Occasion Champion Hachem was additionally despatched to the rail early after coming into the day brief and shoving with a suited ace preflop. Hachem ended up working into Ehsan’s pocket jacks and was unable to enhance to be eradicated.

Antar started to select up steam following the primary break by knocking out Billy Argyros, Linus Goh, and Jian Ting Cai in fast succession — all of whom had been referred to as by Antar after shoving preflop and ending up second-best regardless in the event that they had been behind or forward.

A gradual circulation of eliminations adopted that noticed Wan surge up the counts by eliminating each Romain Morvan and Rehman Kassam. Surprisingly, Martinelli did not declare a single elimination on Day 3 as all of his preflop all in confrontations ended with him doubling up his opponent. Regardless of having a monster chip result in begin the day, Martinelli was despatched to the rail in a disappointing eleventh place after getting all in towards Burns and dropping a race holding ace-queen towards pocket eights.

Regardless of his preliminary success, Amiri would bubble the ultimate desk after getting right into a flip towards Antar. Amiri held jacks towards Antar’s king queen and flopped a set, however Antar made Broadway to convey the match right down to 9 finalists.

The ultimate desk started with Thijs Hilberts as the one actual brief stack and he did not take lengthy to take a stand holding pocket eights towards Antar’s ace-nine suited. Antar ended up hitting an ace on the runout and Hilberts was the primary to be eradicated.

Antar wasted little time placing his newfound chips to work, and he left Troy Candy brief after extacting some skinny worth from him. Unable to get better, Sweets exited in eighth and was adopted out the door by Xiaosheng Zheng in seventh shortly thereafter.

Defending Aussie Hundreds of thousands Important Occasion champion Wan can be subsequent to go after clashing with Burns in an enormous pot that noticed Burns river a straight towards Wan’s prime pair. Wan could not get away and needed to accept a sixth-place end after calling a shove from Burns and getting proven the products.

Whereas Burns asserted himself with well-timed aggression to increase his chip lead, Michael Gathy fell brief and exited in fifth place. An unassuming Michael Tomeny then took an sudden chip lead after placing a beat on Burns with ace-king after getting all in on the flop towards Burns pocket jacks. Tomeny caught a pair of kings on the river and from that time, Burns went from a probable favourite to win all of it to out in fourth place after committing his stack with sevens and getting outlfopped by Antar’s ten-deuce.

One other key had for Antar occurred after catching Tomeny in a gutsy bluff. Tomeny was left brief following the formidable play and ended up shoving preflop with king-ten solely to get run down by Antar’s nine-seven to arrange a heads-up battle between himself and Cassell.

Antar loved a 2.5:1 chip benefit over Cassell firstly of their duel, however Cassell nonetheless loads of combat in her. After slipping to a 3:1 poor on the primary hand of heads-up, Cassell battled again and gained a sequence of pots to shut the hole.

Cassell then misplaced an enormous pot after Antar turned prime pair and obtained a pair streets of worth, however Cassell refused to go quietly. After profitable a pair extra medium-sized pots, Cassell pulled herself to inside 20 massive blinds of Antar with no clear finish to their battle in sight.

Nevertheless, only a few palms later, Antar picked up pocket aces and raised on the button. Cassell defended her massive blind with ace-seven and referred to as bets on each the flop and switch earlier than the river introduced a seven, giving her a pair.

After checking, Cassell confronted an all-in from Antar, sending Cassell deep into the tank. She ultimately dedicated her remaining chips into the center solely to be proven the unhealthy information.

The decision sealed her destiny, and similar to that, Antar was topped champion.

This concludes PokerNews protection of the occasion. For extra dwell updates from the $25,000 Problem and Important Occasion, remember to try our dwell reporting hub right here.