Big One for One Drop 2014

The BIG ONE for ONE DROP, the world’s biggest charity poker tournament, was played at the famous Amazon Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which hosts the World Series of Poker (WSOP) every summer, from June 29 to July 1st, 2014, as part of the 45th edition of the World Series of Poker, the world’s biggest live poker tournament series. The event was covered live by ESPN.

The BIG ONE for ONE DROP has a dual purpose-to raise awareness regarding water issues among poker players and to raise funds for ONE DROP’s global projects. ONE DROP, founded by Guy Laliberte, is a charitable organization that focuses on the provision of safe drinking water for everybody in the world.

$1 Million Buy-in

The BIG ONE is an NL Hold’em tournament with a buy-in of $1,000,000, the largest buy-in for a poker tournament. Since the player field is capped at 56, the prize pool can become larger than $20 million.

Since it is a charity poker tournament, the WSOP does not accept any house fees or rakes. Instead, $111,111 will be deducted from each buy-in and diverted to BIG DROP. The rest of the buy-in is diverted to the prize pool.

2014 BIG ONE Player Field

Anybody above 21 is free to take part in this tournament, but the WSOP reserves seats on a first-come first-serve basis. Players can also make a deposit to guarantee their seat.

The BIG ONE of 2014 attracted a player field of 42 businessmen and professional poker players, including Vanessa Selbst, the first female poker player to take part in this tournament. The others in the player field were Daniel Cates, Daniel Colman, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Galfond, Isaac Haxton, Phil Ivey, Guy Laliberte, Gerg Merson, John Morgan, Daniel Negreanu, Tobias Reinkemeir, Erik Seidel, Dan Smith, Sam Trickett, and Brandon Steven.

Players were also given the opportunity to win a seat to the event for just $200. The Rio Hotel Casino organized a $25,300 qualifier satellite for the event at 6:00 p.m. on June 28. In order to take part in this satellite, players had to survive through seven satellite steps, with buy-ins in the range of $200 to $3,750, held on June 26 and June 27, in order to become eligible to take part in the $25,300 satellite tournament.

The champion turned out to be Daniel Colman, a 23-year-old professional poker player hailing from Massachusetts, who won $15,306,668, the second biggest pot ever won in the history of live poker tournaments.

Over $11 Million for ONE DROP

The BIG ONE tournament raised $5.7 million for ONE DROP in 2012. Although the event was not held in 2013, the World Series of Poker organized two supporting events-the One Drop High Rollers, which raised $553,278, and the Little One for One Drop, which generated $527,916 for the charity. In addition, the All In for One Drop Campaign generated $246,012 for ONE DROP.

So far, the ONE DROP – World Series of Poker partnership has raised over $11,000,000 for the former’s global clean water projects.

The author plays online poker and is web master at iloveonlinepoker.com.

web master at http://www.iloveonlinepoker.com

Author Bio: The author plays online poker and is web master at iloveonlinepoker.com.

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: poker