The Biggest Live Poker Tournament Ever

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Live poker tournaments are conducted at casinos round the world on a regular basis. Currently running at the Rio in Las Vegas is the World Series of Poker, known as WSOP. The WSOP offers a number of tournaments and has been running since the early 1970s. But this year it has for the first time included a live poker tournament that is unprecedented in the history of the game. Participation in this tournament cost players a cool million dollars each. 48 of the top poker players actually shelled out this amount to constitute the largest ever prize pool of over $42 million. The event has come to be known as Big One for One Drop. The three-day tournament just got over and the winner Antonio Esfandiari was richer by $18.3 million. He claimed, “I feel like the President!” But, someone pointed out that the President makes only $400,000 a year. Esfandiari won more than 45 times that amount in three days.

Sooner or later there will be a Hollywood movie based on this live poker tournament and the script is there in the real life lead up to the event. Initially, Esfandiari was not intending to play in the Big One for One Drop. He had been asked by ESPN to do the commentary for the event. Esfandiari likes the commentator gig and perhaps thought it a risk free way to make money out of the tournament. Earlier in the WSOP, Esfandiari was participating in a much smaller event. This one has a total prize pool of $1.6 million. In this tournament Esfandiari reached the last three holding 80% of the chips. But he was dogged by extreme bad luck and got knocked out in third place. It was that defeat that propelled him to enter the Big One for One Drop. Esfandiari said, “I was like ‘Argh’, so I decided to play it at the last minute.” It was his best decision ever, though there are number of poker players who are wishing that Esfandiari had won that little event. Among them is Sam Trickett, who had to settle for the $10 million plus second prize.

Normally WSOP event winners are awarded a gold bracelet. But the Big One for One Drop has a platinum bracelet. Esfandiari will give the bracelet to his father, who came up to the stage and hugged his son after the win. Esfandiari said, “He’s been my biggest supporter. I love him to death; he’s the greatest man on the planet. He gave up a lot to move us to this country, everything basically. So to win this for him and give him the bracelet means the world to me. I’m going to wear this tonight but after tonight it’s my Dad’s bracelet.”

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