Crown Melbourne is Australia’s leading integrated entertainment resort attracting approximately 17 million local, interstate and international visitors each year.
Crown is also one of the largest entertainment complexes in the world, covering 510 000 square metres (the equivalent of two city blocks) and showcasing Australia’s best restaurant precinct and chefs, a magnificent casino and luxurious private gaming salons, a luxury brand shopping street, Australia’s best hotels including the award winning Crown Towers with 480 guest rooms, Crown Promenade comprising 465 guest rooms and 658 room Crown Metropol.
Crown’s world class casino features up to 500 table games, the exclusive Mahogany private gaming club and its internationally famous ultra luxurious gaming salons. The Crown Poker Room, home to the internationally renowned Aussie Millions Poker Championship, includes over 60 poker tables and is the main stage to Australia’s largest range of high stakes poker tournaments.
Crown’s Conference Centre covers 7350 square metres over three floors and Crown’s banqueting facilities include the Palladium’s 1500 seat ballroom and the Palms’ 900 seat cabaret venue.
More than 40 cafes and restaurants and over 30 bars reside in the complex, including many of Melbourne’s finest and the world’s best including Neil Perry’s ‘Rockpool Bar and Grill’ and ‘Spice Temple’, Maurizio Terzini and Robert Marchetti’s ‘Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons’, Nobu Matsuhisa, his partners actor Robert De Niro’s world renowned ‘Nobu’.
Crown also boasts entertainment and shopping facilities that are amongst the world best including Prada, Louis Vuitton and Versace, along with a multi-screen cinema complex, a bowling alley, an interactive gaming auditorium and internationally recognised designer boutiques and retail outlets.
Crown employs in excess of 6500 staff and 3300 contractors, making the business one of Victoria’s largest single-site employer. Investing in people is one of Crown’s key strategies to help attract, train and develop and retain the very best employees. Part of this strategy is moving Crown’s focus from ‘training’ to ‘learning’ and from a ‘job’ to a ‘career’.
Crown is a Registered Training Organisation and aligns internal training programs to the Australian Qualifications Training Framework, giving employees the opportunity to receive nationally recognised qualifications.
CROWN POKER ROOM
The Crown Poker Room launched with just 21 tables in 1997, three years after the casino opened.
Legions of locals have been swept up in the Australian poker boom that was ignited when Melbournian and Crown Ambassador Joe Hachem became the 2005 World Series of Poker Champion, scooping up $10 million in prize money for his efforts. This enormous win, along with the made-for-television poker tournaments, where concealed cameras reveal each player’s cards to the viewer, have elevated the game to a spectacular sport and opened up a players-eye-view and its popularity has skyrocketed.
These contributing factors have seen the Crown Poker Room swell from 21 to 72 tables. Along with a recent licence awarded, takes the total number of poker tables to 100, making Crown’s Poker Room the largest poker room outside North America.
THE MAHOGANY ROOM
When the world’s greatest poker pro’s do not want to roll the craps dice with the patrons on the main gaming room floor they head to the Crown’s infamous salon privé ‘The Mahogany Room’. Crown’s Signature Club programme offers points for purchases throughout the entire Entertainment Complex, so mere mortals can gain entry to the most exclusive room in town simply by shopping for their favourite items.
JOE HACHEM, 2005 WSOP CHAMPION AND CROWN AMBASSADOR
Long before he contemplated even entering the WSOP, Joe Hachem honed his game at Crown. But after becoming world champion, Hachem was named Crown Casino Ambassador and now hosts his eponymous Deep Stack tournament twice a year. Whenever there’s a poker-playing celebrity in town, such as Matt Damon, Jason Alexander, Justin Timberlake, Zac Efron, Michael Schumacher or the Kings of Leon, Hachem is on hand to give some one-on-one tutelage.
CROWN’S AUSSIE MILLIONS POKER CHAMPIONSHIP
The first big tournament, the Crown Australian Poker Championship was held in 1998. These days the championship is known worldwide as the ‘Aussie Millions Poker Championship’ and has subsequently made its mark as one of the top five leading international events on the poker calendar. Crown’s Aussie Millions began in 1998 with a respectable 74 entrants each putting up $1,000 for a chance to win the title. By 2001, the entry fee had increased to $5,000, attracting 40 players and a prize pool of up to $200,000. Then, pre-empting Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP victory in 2003, Crown made the decision to match the ‘Main Event’ buy-in, raising the stakes to AU$10,000. The increase paid off and a more international clientele flocked to Melbourne including Erik Seidel, the Hendon Mob and the 2003 tournament winner, Peter Costa, who won $394,000. 746 players contributed to the 2010 Aussie Millions AUD$7.46 million prize-pool and AUD$2 million first prize that was won by 23-year-old Sydneysider Tyron Krost, then in January 2011 a 68 year-old grandfather from Melbourne collected a whopping AUD$2,000,000 in prize money. He was also presented with the widely-cherished and universally-revered diamond-encrusted gold bracelet, representing the game’s ultimate achievement.
HOME OF THE ‘WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE TOURNAMENT’
Since 2006, Crown has run the AUD$100,000 Challenge. At the 2011 Aussie Millions, 38 of the richest international players sat down to battle it out for the AUD$2.2 million first prize and ultimate bragging rights. The structure is unique to this event, players start with $100,000 chips and are on a 30-second clock for every decision, with three chances of a 30-second extension. Pre-flop the game plays pot-limit, before reverting to no-limit post-flop. Last year Erik Seidel, defeated Sam Trickett heads-up to take the 2011 title.
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