The Crown Casino in Australia recently announced that they'll be hosting the biggest poker tournament of all time in 2006, with an $80 million prize pool. That doesn't make it the biggest poker tournament in terms of number of players, but it makes it the biggest poker tournament ever in terms of the size of the prize pool.

Only Six Players

There will only be six players playing in the tournament, and each player will pony up $13.3 million for the privilege of playing in this winner take all event. The tournament is planned for July 2006, and will last about 4 hours. Joe Hachem is expected to be one of the six players involved in the event. Phil Ivey is also expected to participate.

According to Richard Longhurst, the head of gaming at the Crown, three players are already confirmed and at least eight players have expressed interest in playing in this tournament. The $80 million prize pool is eight times larger than the prize pool for the World Series of Poker main event.

Biggest Prize Pool Ever, Anywhere

No other sporting event in history has had this kind of prize pool. In 1997, Evander Holyfield won $46 million in his bout with ear-biting Mike Tyson. This amount is almost twice that. The world-famous lotto Megadraw has a record-setting $32 million jackpot. The prize pool for the Crown's upcoming poker tournament is almost three times that large.

This is going to be big.

This page was last updated on January 5, 2006.