Andy Lee Ends Dry Spell with Largest Career Score in Aussie Millions $25k Challenge

“It’s been a while—go win something.”

Heeding his wife’s request, Andy Lee arrived at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship 2026 Presented by CrownBet and hopped into the $25K Challenge, only to bust within the first three hours.

Rather than calling it a day, the gritty Australian pro regrouped, reentered, and went on a heater, bagging the second-largest stack by the end of Day 2.

Armed with momentum and plenty of chips to work with, Lee delivered an impressive performance at the final table. Mixing in well-timed aggression with sharp calldowns, he showed that navigating a high roller field requires more than simply making hands.

In the end, Lee topped a 98-entry field—an unusually large turnout for a $25K event in Australia—and defeated Josh Hutchins in a brief heads-up battle to claim the $652,670 AUD top prize, the largest score of his career to date.

$25k Challenge Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

“This one feels really, really special,” Lee said shortly after capturing the title. “Aussie Millions has always been a huge event on my calendar. We were deprived of it for six years, and now it’s back— and the numbers have been ridiculous. For a $25K event in Australia, we usually get around 30 runners if we’re lucky. But this time we got 98 players, with a lot of strong international competition. I’m really glad to come out on top.”

For Lee, the victory wasn’t just about the money, it was about getting back into the winner’s circle.

“As I’ve told everyone, I feel very, very relieved. Before I left home, my wife said, ‘It’s been a while—go win something.’ And Mother’s Day is coming, so I thought this would be a nice present for her.”

One of the defining moments came when Lee made a fearless call with just fourth pair against Michael Egan, which helped secure his chip position and enabled him to apply more pressure to his opponents en route to victory.

“Given the chip stacks, I didn’t think Michael would be value betting too light,” Lee said. “He had a lot of busted flush draws, and with the odds I was getting, I thought it was the right move to call. I can easily be wrong there… I made a couple of light calls throughout the final table, and some were wrong. I was just playing what I thought was right. That hand, I was lucky enough to be right and get a big stack to apply pressure.”

Despite the victory, Lee explained he is most excited to play the Main Event.

“I’m really, really looking forward to to playing [the Main Event]. Winning the Aussie Millions Main Event has always been my dream,” he said. “I’m going to take today off, wake up fresh tomorrow, and give it a shot.”

Final Table Action

The final table began with Hieu Nguyen as the short stack and it didn’t take long for him to find a spot to shove preflop after waking up with pocket jacks facing a three-bet against Egan. Unfortunately for Nguyen, Egan held pocket queens, and Nguyen failed to improve to become the first casualty of the final table.

Luke Martinelli also held a short stack to start the final table and, despite chipping up a bit early on, Martinelli found himself on the wrong end of a brutal cooler to be eliminated in eighth place. In the hand, Martinelli flopped a full house with pocket sevens against Egan’s trip aces. The turn gave Egan a higher full house, however, and he got all of Martinelli’s chips after shoving on the river.

An extended period of play without an elimination followed, but Lee ascended up the chip counts thanks in large part to making an impressive calldown against Egan holding just fourth pair. Lee then overtook Kei Tanaka‘s spot as chip leader after winning a large pot from him with pocket queens.

Things only got worse for Tanaka after losing a flip against Joe Sandaev and shortly thereafter, Tanaka found himself all in with a dominated ace against Lee. Tanaka was unable to improve and had to settle for a disappointed seventh-place finish after entering the final table with a commanding chip lead.

Matthew Wakeman followed Tanaka out the door in sixth place after committing his stack with a draw against Lee’s pocket kings and bricking out, which further asserted Lee’s chip lead. Following the dinner break and with escalating blinds, Egan fell in fifth in similar fashion to Tanaka — by shoving a dominated ace into Lee and failing to improve.

Not long after, Hutchins ended Lee’s elimination streak by shoving preflop with a king against Sandaev in a blind-versus-blind confrontation. Sandaev got his chips in good with an ace, but the runout left Hutchins best after pairing him up to eliminate Sandaev in fourth.

Lee was still armed with an overwhelming chip lead, however, and took advantage of the situation with ample preflop aggression. Raise after raise, Lee took down small pots uncontested until eventually Li took a stand holding an ace. Unfortunately for Li, Lee held Big Slick and held to bring the tournament to heads-up.

Armed with an over 5:1 chip advantage and with Hutchins holding approximately 10 big blinds, it didn’t take long for Hutchins to be forced into a showdown. After trading a couple of preflop shoves and folds, Hutchins committed his stack with ten-nine and was called by Lee holding queen-ten. The board whiffed both players, leaving Lee best with his queen to seal his victory and put an end to the tournament.

This concludes PokerNews coverage of the event. For ongoing coverage of the Aussie Millions Main Event, be sure to check out our live reporting hub.