During the first level of the ESPN telecast of 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event final table Monday night, floor reporter Kara Scott kept hyping some sort of huge announcement that would be made soon, an announcement that would excite the poker world. Perhaps to the disappointment of some, it had nothing to do with legalizing online poker in the United States, but it was still a pretty significant announcement: “The Big One for One Drop” tournament will return to the World Series of Poker.
The tournament was the brain child of Cirque du Soleil founder and avid high stakes poker player Guy Laliberte. Laliberte is the founder of the One Drop charitable organization, which is dedicated to providing access to clean water worldwide. The buy-in for the One Drop event, played at the beginning of July, was an astounding $1 million, with no rake taken by the WSOP and $111,111 of each entry going towards the charity.
A total of 48 men participated, raising over $5.3 million for One Drop and creating a first prize of over $18 million, the richest in the history of poker. A total of nine players made the money, with the payouts starting at $1.1 million.
Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari came out on top and was not shy about showing his emotions after the final river card gave him the victory. In a post-game interview, he said, “It’s not often I’m at a loss for words, but right now I’m at a loss for words. I just want to say a special thanks to Guy for putting this tournament on; if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here and your charity wouldn’t have almost five more million dollars.”
After that, he called his father down from the stands to join him and presented him with the $350,000 custom-made platinum bracelet he received for being the One Drop champ.
Prior to the event, Esfandiari actually predicted he was going to win (win a tournament, we might add, that he came very close to not entering), telling Kara Scott, “It’s called clear intention. And I had it. I just knew I was going to win. You just have to put it out there and believe it and sometimes it comes true.”
As for the next Big One for One Drop, it will skip a year, possibly to allow interested players to save up for the buy-in, and return for the 2014 World Series of Poker. In a pre-recorded piece during ESPN’s Main Event final table broadcast, Guy Laliberte said, “With the response we received, why not do it again? We’re looking to break the record and we think we’ll do it.”
ESPN WSOP play-by-play announcer Lon McEachern noted to Esfandiari, who was providing commentary along with Norman Chad, that the good thing about the tournament not coming back until 2014 is that Esfandiari gets an extra year as champ. Chad expressed his intentions of participating, but with the caveat that it will require one million people to send him one dollar each for the buy-in.