The history making Big One for One Drop tournament kicked off Sunday at the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) with 48 deep-pocketed players each putting up a record $1 million buy-in for their chance at immortality. The event was the brainchild of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, with $111,111 of each buy-in going to One Drop, a charitable organization which aims to make clean drinking water available to everyone in the world. After the first day, 37 players remain with Brian Rast and Phil Hellmuth topping the leaderboard.
With 48 players, the prize pool for the tournament is an astounding $42,666,672. While one-ninth of the buy-in is removed for charity, the WSOP did not take any fee. A total of nine players – the entire final table – will make the money with the winner taking the largest prize in poker tournament history: $18,346,673.
Just over half of the entrants in the Big One are professional poker players. Amongst the non-pros are Greenlight Capital Founder and President David Einhorn, who famously finished 16th in the 2006 WSOP Main Event and donated his $650,000 in winnings to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, film producer Rick Salomon, best known for the 2003 sex tape in which he “starred” with Paris Hilton, and Guy Laliberté himself.
This event is certain to contain its fair share of big moments, but it has already produced what might be the hand of this year’s WSOP. Around 6:00pm, Tom “durrrr” Dwan opened the betting in a hand and was called by Russian businessman Mikhail Smirnov, who held 8♦-8♥, and Winmark Corporation CEO John Morgan. The flop was J♠-8♣-7♠, giving Smirnov a set. Dwan checked, Smirnov bet, Morgan called, and Dwan folded. Pretty standard to this point. The case 8♠ was dealt on the turn, making the virtually unbeatable quads for Smirnov. He led out with a 200,000 chip bet and was called once again by Morgan. The K♠ fell on the river, prompting a 700,000 chip bet from Smirnov. This time, instead of calling, Morgan moved all-in for 3.4 million. Smirnov tanked. The board made all sorts of hands – a flush, a full house, a straight flush – possible. And then, to everybody’s shock…
…Smirnov folded quads face-up. He was either brilliant or temporarily insane.
Tweeted Phil Galfond, “Just saw the craziest hand I’ve ever seen.”
Afterwards, Smirnov explained to the WSOP’s Nolan Dalla that he just felt that Morgan had made a straight flush. He didn’t think he had pocket Kings or Jacks (to make a full house) because he didn’t raise pre-flop. He felt that if Morgan had pocket Sevens for a lower full house, he would have called on the river rather than shoving. He also didn’t think Morgan was bluffing because in his opinion, that wasn’t a likely move from an amateur poker player. All that, combined with Morgan’s quick call on the turn (when he would’ve made a straight flush) and his perceived excitement, led Smirnov to believe that Morgan had him beaten, however improbable that might have been. Smirnov was very confident in his decision and had no second thoughts.
Both men are still alive in the tournament, though the same cannot be said for (in order of elimination) Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Jonathan Duhamel, Andrew Robl, Jens Kyllonen, Paul Phua, Erik Seidel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospelier, Nick Schulman, Eugene Katchalov, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, and Giovanni Guarascio.
Play will resume at noon Vegas time on Monday, with plans to narrow the field all the way down to the final table.
2012 WSOP Event #55: Big One for One Drop $1,000,000 No-Limit Hold’em – End of Day 1 Chip Leaders
- Brian Rast – 10,710,000
- Phil Hellmuth – 8,395,000
- Frederic Banjout – 7,070,000
- Antonio Esfandiari – 6,880,000
- Gus Hansen – 6,800,000
- Sam Trickett – 6,700,000
- Guy Laliberté – 6,550,000
- Ben Lamb – 5,770,000
- Mike Sexton – 5,740,000
- Tom Dwan – 4,810,000