Fifteen years after winning A$450,000 at one of Australian poker’s biggest final tables, Mick Ryan has found another way to turn strategic decisions into a major payday.
The former Aussie Millions Main Event finalist has won the 2026 SuperCoach NRL competition and its A$50,000 first prize, beating a nationwide field of fantasy rugby league players.
Ryan believes the two achievements have more in common than they might initially appear to.
From the Aussie Millions Final Table to SuperCoach
Ryan’s biggest recorded poker moment came at the 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event in Melbourne.
Playing as Michael Ryan, he reached the final table of the A$10,000 Main Event after surviving a field of 721 entries. The tournament generated a A$7.21 million prize pool and included some of the biggest poker names of the era.
Ryan eventually finished fourth for A$450,000.
David Gorr won the tournament for A$2 million, while James Keys finished second and Jeff Rossiter took third. Ryan’s final table also included Chris Moorman and Patrik Antonius.
It was the sort of result most poker players never experience.
Fifteen years later, Ryan has won another competition built around managing incomplete information, assessing risk and making decisions over an extended period.
This time, there were no cards involved.
Ryan Sees Poker Skills in Fantasy Sports
Ryan, now 44 and living in Old Bar on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, told Australia’s Daily Telegraph that his background in poker had helped prepare him for SuperCoach.
He described the skill sets involved in poker and fantasy sports as very similar.
That comparison makes sense beyond the obvious competitive element.
A poker tournament repeatedly forces players to make decisions without knowing exactly what will happen next. Fantasy sports involve a different set of variables, but competitors still have to balance probability, incomplete information, short-term results and longer-term strategy.
Ryan also works as a sports analyst and runs a business providing AI solutions across different sports.
Interestingly, artificial intelligence was not the secret behind his SuperCoach victory.
Ryan said he had experimented with creating his own AI model for the competition but found SuperCoach too complicated to model effectively without investing considerably more time in the project.
Instead, his winning season still required plenty of human decision-making and one enormous piece of late fortune.
A Poker-Style “Luckbox” Moment Decides the Title
Ryan entered the final round in danger of missing out on first place.
His fortunes changed when Leka Halasima was ruled out with an ankle injury, pushing Warriors utility Taine Tuaupiki into the team. Ryan already owned Tuaupiki, who suddenly became available to score points at exactly the moment he needed them.
Ryan described discovering the late team change while collecting a pizza as a “luckbox” moment.
Tuaupiki then produced the score Ryan needed.
Without his late inclusion, Ryan would have been left with only 17 scoring players and would not have won the competition.
Poker players will recognize the feeling immediately.
Good decisions can put someone in position to win, but sometimes the final outcome still requires the right card, bounce or team selection to arrive at precisely the right moment.
Ryan Shared an Aussie Millions Final Table With Poker Stars
The passage of time makes Ryan’s 2011 poker result particularly interesting.
The Aussie Millions was among the most prestigious tournaments outside Las Vegas during that period, regularly bringing international stars to Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
Ryan’s final table included Moorman, who would become one of online tournament poker’s most successful players, and Antonius, already established as one of the most recognizable high-stakes players in the game.
Ryan entered the final table with 960,000 chips before eventually surviving to fourth place and collecting A$450,000.
The result remains considerably larger than his new A$50,000 SuperCoach prize, but the latest victory brings Ryan’s poker background back into the spotlight more than a decade later.
His story also arrives during a busy period for Australian poker. WPT Australia began its 21-day Sydney festival at The Star on September 10, while the first Irish Open festival in Australia is already underway elsewhere in the city.
The two international festivals have put Australian tournament poker firmly back in the spotlight. The country once synonymous internationally with the Aussie Millions is again attracting major poker brands and tournament series.
Ryan’s latest victory is not a poker result.
But after beating 720 opponents at the Aussie Millions before finishing fourth, he has now beaten another huge competitive field in a game where every decision accumulates over time.
The cards have been replaced by rugby league players. The A$50,000 at the end is very real.
