Big One for One Drop announces 30 confirmed players
18 Jun 2018
Scheduled as the culminating tournament of this year’s 49th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), the largest buy-in poker tournament will be televised by ESPN2, and live streamed to viewers on PokerGo. The winner of this event forever etches their name in the poker history books.
The event is a charitable initiative of the One Drop organization in concert with the World Series of Poker to help raise awareness and funds for OneDrop and all their worldwide relief efforts.
The charitable contribution from each buy-in has been reduced by nearly a third to what it was previously, now at only 8%. This means more for the prize pool — $920,000 of each buy in — without sacrificing on the main goal of the Big One for One Drop: Raising funds for a dire worldwide cause – access to safe water. The tournament will continue to be operated without a rake so players have a chance to win what likely may be the largest prize pool the Big One for One Drop has seen in its four editions – $44,160,000 – should the 48-player cap be reached.
Two weeks into the WSOP and just 30 days before the event start, non-refundable deposits are on the rise and the event is on pace to reach capacity. This tournament is reserved on a first-come first-serve basis, with those providing a deposit guaranteeing their seat until 10 July 2018.
Poker pros as well as amateur players are well represented. Among the 22 pros are players Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Christoph Vogelsang, Bryn Kenney, Nick Petrangelo, Rainer Kempe, Dominik Nitsche, Steffen Sontheimer, Jason Koon, Phil Ivey, Adrian Mateos and Phil Hellmuth.
If the event was to start today, eight seats would be occupied by philanthropic businessmen such as Rick Solomon, Talal Shakerchi, and Leon Tsoukernik. Others have wished to remain anonymous.
This includes a seat in the Big One for One Drop taken by the winner of the MGMRI Big 3 Poker Invitational that has been organized by MGM Resorts International. Additionally, the World Series of Poker Satellites at the Rio for the Big One will take place on 14 July at 12noon and 6pm, with a $10,300 buy-in option mega satellite at noon, feeding the $100,500 mega satellite in an effort to award a seat, giving interested players the opportunity to win their seat via one of these lower buy-in options.
“That a charitable poker tournament could have such an impact is simply astonishing," said Jack Effel, tournament director at the WSOP, “Since 2012, through15 tournaments and player donations, over 12,000 individuals have contributed to raising over $20 million for the cause of access to safe water. This has had an incredible impact on the lives of over 170,000 people in need. Both from the poker and humanitarian aspects, the whole poker community and us at WSOP are lucky to be a part of this.”
ESPN2 announced it will telecast action from the event on 16 and 17 July, with planned coverage of the final table live beginning at 9pm ET until its conclusion while PokerGO subscribers will ensure their viewers can watch the event shortly after it unfolds live when ESPN2 isn’t on air.
The tournament is the creation of One Drop and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté in partnership with WSOP. Since 2012, each edition of the Big One has brought together poker players, philanthropists, celebrities and businessmen from across the globe in a unique way to raise awareness of water-related issues among the poker community. Today, with a variety of charitable tournaments such as the Little One for One Drop and the High Rollers for One Drop, as well as the contribution from all players alike making donations, WSOP and the poker community have had a major impact in allowing One Drop to pursue its crucial mission.