The greatest poker event of all time
The double World Poker Tour champion, holder of two WSOP bracelets, known as ‚The Magician’, became 18,346,673 USD richer after winning the greatest poker tournament in history.
Antonio Esfandiari placed first at the tournament with the highest buy-in of all time, namely one million dollars. It is about the ‘The Big One For One Drop’ event. The tournament took place at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in las Vegas, between July 1and 3.
The great winner, Antonio Esfandiari, won at heads-up against Sam Trickett and won a prize in the amount of 18,346,673 USD at the event 55 in the World Series of Poker, Big One For One Drop.
Leading the final table
Esfandiari led the final 8-player table, after Mike Sexton had been eliminated on the ninth position, holding 39,925,000 chips (134 big blinds). He was followed by the usual finalist of the high roller events, Sam Trickett, with 37,000,000 chips (123 big blinds). The founder of One Drope and the creator of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté started the final table in the third position. Both he and David Einhorn annouunced that they would donate their winnings to some charitable organizations. Brian Rest, Phil Hellmuth, businessman Richard Zoung and the poker legend Bobby Baldwin were the other players.
Professional magician
Antonio Esfandiari is 33 and lives in San Francisco. He was born in Teheran, Iran and his family moved to San Jose, California, when he was nine. His real name is Amir Esdandiari, but he changed it to Antonio when turned 19. The nickname of ‚The Magician’ comes from the fact that he knows how to do all kinds of tricks with the cards, as he is a professional magician. His younger brother, Pasha, plays poker too. Currently, Antonio’s winnings from poker amount to 23,200,000 USD.
THE event
The Big One For One Drop is the most spectacular tournament in the poker world so far. This tournament of No Limit Hold’em had a huge buy-in, in the amount of 1 million USD. And the event caught the attention as never before. The Big One for One Drop tournament is a poker event also organized as a charity, which also drew the largest prize ever seen in a similar event. A number of 48 players were present at the mega-event in Las Vegas.
Drinking water for poor countries
A percentage of each one-million buy-in, more exactly 111,111 USD was donated to the ONE DROP charitable organization, in order to raise enough money for a project that will allow the poor countries have access to drinking water.
The ONE DROP charitable organization was created by the founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté, in cooperation with Montrealer and Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO, Mitch Garber. The funds raised will be forwarded to the projects worldwide, organized by ONE DROP. Thus, this tournament generated an impressive amount, i.e. 5,533,328 USD, which will be used for the above. The event did not have rake, hence the rest of 888,889 USD from each buy-in was distributed as prizes of the tournament. The players started with 3,000,000 chips.
WSOP 2012, Event 55: The Big One For One Drop
Final ranking
Position Name Prize (USD)
Antonio Esfandiari – 18,346,673
Sam Trickett – 10,112,001
David Einhorn – 4,352,000
Phil Hellmuth – 2,645,333
Guy Laliberte – 1,834,666
Brian Rast – 1,621,333
Bobby Baldwin – 1,408,000
Richard Yong – 1,237,333
