A thriving and modern metropolis, Melbourne is a sophisticated world city that boasts a vibrant and eclectic nightlife scene and offer visitors the taste of a heady cosmopolitan lifestyle. Known as Australia’s sports capital, it is no stranger to hosting world class sporting events such as the Australian Open Tennis Championships and the Australian Grand Prix. It is no surprise that Melbourne is also the location Australia’s largest casino, the Crown Casino.

In the latest instalment of our monthly destination guide, Baller delves further into Melbourne’s thriving poker scene, which revolves around Crown – the stomping ground of 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem. As well as serving as the home of Australian Poker, it hosts the Asia-Pacific region’s richest poker tournament in the form of the Aussie Millions. The 2010 Aussie Millions is expected to attract 800 of the world’s best poker players to play for over A$8 million in prize money.

In addition to the Aussie Millions and the Joe Hachem Deep-Stack Series, Crown boasts a comprehensive tournament schedule and plays host to several other popular tournaments. The Melboourne Cup attracts runs here every year and upwards of 400 runners. Crown also hosts several other large championship tournaments in the form of the Victorian Poker Championships and Melbourne Poker Championships.

“Although Sydney has the APPT Grand Final with a first prize of AU$1,000,000, Crown has the Aussie Millions and the first prize last year was AU$2,000,000. Crown just runs tournaments every day of the week depending on what you want to play,” says Crown regular and poker pro Dave Lee.

For the travelling poker aficionado, Crown is also the place to go if you are looking for a juicy game of cards. “Now that I’ve actually travelled and played poker all over the world – and I’m probably a bit biased when it comes to Crown – I think that it is one of the best poker rooms in the world. I think the only ones that come close are some of the Vegas card rooms, like the Venetian and the Bellagio,” Dave proclaims with a tinge of pride.