Big One For One Drop: The Final Table
Just 8 players remain in the $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop charity event at the WSOP. The table includes 4 businessmen and 4 poker pros. Guy Laliberté and Phil Hellmuth are still alive, and Antonio Esfandiari is the chipleader.
48 players spent a massive $1,000,000 to participate in the Big One For One Drop. 9 of them would make their money back, and now just 8 still have chips and the hope to win a record-setting $18,346,673.
$111,111 from each buy-in went to Guy Laliberté's One Drop Foundation, so a total of $5,333,328 has been raised to help bring clean water to poor areas of the world.
The event's total prize pool is an unbelievable $42,666,672.
Final Table Facts
Who bubbled the biggest min-cash ever? Ilya Bulychev, a 34-year old Russian businessman, bubbled this event in 10th place. If he had lasted 1 more spot he would have received $1,109,333.
Who's the richest? There are at least 2 billionaires at this final table. According to Forbes, Guy Laliberté's net worth is the highest at $2.6 billion, and hedge fund manager David Einhorn's net worth is $1.1 billion. It is possible that Richard Yong is also a billionaire from his aluminum business in Asia, but specific information on his finances are not available.
Who's the most succesful tournament player? Basically any way you look at it, Phil Hellmuth is the most successful player still in this event. He's 5th on the all-time money list ($13,473,969) and 1st on the all-time WSOP bracelets list with 12.
The second most successful player is up for debate - Sam Trickett is 2nd in terms of tournament earnings ($6,359,096), but Esfandiari is 2nd in terms of major tournament victories (2 WPT, 1 WSOP).
Who won't keep the cash? The 2 wealthiest players at the table, Guy Laliberté and David Einhorn, are expected to donate their entire winnings to charity. Guy's winnings will go to One Drop, and Einhorn will donate his winnings to City Year - an American charity focused on reducing the high school dropout rate.
Impact on the all-time money list - Regardless of who wins this event, that person will overtake Erik Seidel at the top of the all-time tournament earnings list. Phil Hellmuth is the only player who can overtake Seidel with less than a 1st place finish - he only needs to come in 3rd to become the all-time leader.
Super high roller experience - Sam Trickett is the only player at this table with experience in tournaments with huge buy-ins. The two largest cashes of his career came in January of 2011 at the Aussie Millions when he won an AU$100,000 buy-in event and came in 2nd in a AU$250,000 buy-in.
Strange payout structure - The payouts for this event are quite unusual. 9 players are paid (Mike Sexton already busted in 9th), which as a percentage of the 48 runners is quite high (18.75%). The difference between 4th place and 9th place is just $1,536,000, and then the jumps between the top 3 places are enormous.
| Big One For One Drop Payouts | |
| Place | Prize |
| 1st | $18,346,673 |
| 2nd | $10,112,001 |
| 3rd | $4,352,000 |
| 4th | $2,645,333 |
| 5th | $1,834,666 |
| 6th | $1,621,333 |
| 7th | $1,408,000 |
| 8th | $1,237,333 |
| 9th | $1,109,333 |
WSOP 2012 Event #55: $1,000,000 Big One For One Drop
Final Table Chip Counts |
||||
| Place | Name | Chips | ||
| 1 | Antonio Esfandiari | 39,925,000 | ||
| 2 | Sam Trickett | 37,000,000 | ||
| 3 | Guy Laliberté | 21,700,000 | ||
| 4 | Brian Rast | 11,350,000 | ||
| 5 | Phil Hellmuth | 10,925,000 | ||
| 6 | David Einhorn | 8,375,000 | ||
| 7 | Richard Yong | 7,475,000 | ||
| 8 | Bobby Baldwin | 7,150,000 | ||
| - | ||||
| out | Mike Sexton | $1,109,333 | ||
|
Players: 8 (48) | Prize Pool: $42,666,672 Average Chips: 18,000,000 | Blinds: 150,000/300,000/50,000 |
||||
by Matt Kaufman
