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The BIG ONE is Back

May 20, 2014

The BIG ONE for ONE DROP, the biggest charity poker tournament in the world, and the biggest poker tournament period will return this year as part of the 45th annual World Series of Poker event lineup. This rich tournament will take place in the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the same venue that the other 64 other live poker events that will happen begtinning May 27th, just six short days away!

The BIG ONE, however, will not take place until Sunday, June 29th and will kick off at 1:00 p.m. that day. This three-day event will cost $1 million to buy into and is limited to 56 registrants. $111,111 from every buy-in will go to the ONE DROP charity, which works to bring clean water to underprivileged parts of the world. The remaining $888,889 will go directly into the prize pool. No fees or rake will be collected. The first place finisher could be looking at a potential payout of more than $20 million if all 56 seats are filled.

Initially, 23 players had confirmed their seats, and since then 10 more players have jumped on board. Now, 23 seats remain. Confirmed participants include a wide range of eccentric personalities who can afford such a buy-in. The most recent registrants include Vanessa Selbst, arguably the best female poker player in the world and second all-time female WSOP earner; Jean-Robert Bellande, former Survivor: China contestant; Anthony Gregg, winner of last year’s WSOP One Drop High Rollers event and $4.8 million; Fabian Quoss, German pro; Max Altergott, young German pro, who won almost $2.3 million in a Monte Carlo tournament a year ago; Tobias Reinkemeier, third all-time German poker earner with three WSOP cashes already; Igor Kurganov, number one poker earner in Russia; Christoph Vogelsang, German pro with a couple cashes to his name; Niklas Heinecker, winner of the 2011 WSOP Main Event, also from Germany and top winningest player for 2013 with almost $6.2 million in winnings and three WSOP cashes. Rounding out the newest 10 registrants is an anonymous Asian businessman, who has asked his identity be kept secret.

Other players will include the no brainers like Antonio Esfandiari, winner of the inaugural BIG ONE for ONE DROP, with three WSOP bracelets total; Guy Laliberté, founder of the BIG ONE, as well as Cirque du Soleil founder, with an estimated worth at $1.5 billion; Phil Ivey, nine-time WSOP bracelet winner and second on the all-time money list with more than $21 million in career tourney winnings; Phil Galfond, aka “OMGClayAiken” and one-time WSOP bracelet winner; Erik Seidel, eight-time bracelet winner and runner up in the 1988 WSOP Main Event; Sam Trickett, 2012’s BIG ONE runner-up and most successful tournament player in the UK with more than $20 million in career winnings; Jason Mercier, two-bracelet winner and former basketball player who has amassed more than $10 million in career tournament earnings; Daniel “jungleman” Cates, and Isaac Haxton, seven-time WSOP final tablists.

These professional poker players will be joined by three additional anonymous businessmen, and three satellite seat winners. Other confirmed registrants include Noah Schwartz, Brandon Steven, Anthony Gregg, Brian Rast, Andrew Robl, Vivek Rajkumar, Bill Perkins, Paul Newey, Philipp Gruissem, David Einhorn, and Bobby Baldwin.

For the rest of us, there’s also the Little One for One Drop is schedulaed for July 2nd, to begin at noon, a four-day event that will only cost $1,111 to buy-in and will offer unlimited re-entry throughout the first four levels.

Written by Mac · Filed Under Poker News 

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