Antonio Esfandiari Wins Big One For One Drop - Report & Interview
The two-time World Poker Tour winner and now two-time WSOP bracelet winner known as "The Magician" has made $18,346,673 magically appear into his bank account after taking down the largest tournament in poker history.
WSOP numbers so far:
Events: 58/61
Prize pool: $157,393,412
Participants: 63,417
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Antonio Esfandiari wins Big One For One Drop
Antonio Esfandiari has won the largest buy-in poker tournament of all time by defeating Sam Trickett heads-up to take down the $18,346,673 first prize in the World Series of Poker Event #55 - the Big One For One Drop.
Esfandiari lead the eight-handed final table after the elimination of Mike Sexton in ninth place, holding 39,925,000 in chips (134 big blinds). He was closely followed by perennial high roller finalist Sam Trickett with 37,000,000 (123 big blinds).
One Drop founder and Cirque du Soleil creator Guy Laliberté began the final table in third place - both he and sixth place David Einhorn had pledged to give any money received to charity.
Brian Rast, Phil Hellmuth, businessman Richard Yong and poker legend Bobby Baldwin made up the rest of the final table as play began.
The Magician's road to victory
Despite the high stakes it took just 23 hands for the first elimination - Richard Yong hit the rail when his 
could not hold up against Brian Rast's 
.
In under a few dozen hands, Bobby Baldwin lost out with 
against Laliberté's 
despite flopping top pair.
2011 Poker Players Championship winner Brian Rast lost out next after losing an ice-cold cooler to Sam Trickett - the pair got it in on a board of 
with Rast holding the 
and 
.
Guy Laliberté left to a standing ovation after losing a coinflip with 
versus Esfandiari's 
for over one-third of the chips in play.
Shortly after, Phil Hellmuth missed the chance to secure his 13th bracelet when he got in against Trickett's dominating and couldn't come from behind.
Businessman David Einhorn was our third place finisher as his 
ran into Esfandiari's 
which left us heads-up with The Magician holding a chip lead of 2.5-1 over Sam Trickett. It took just 16 hands for it to be over - Trickett check-raised and then 3-bet a flop of 
holding 
, putting all his chips on the line against Antonio's 
.
The turn and river blanked out, giving Antonio the largest first prize in poker history. Check out our interview with Antonio and the full final table results of the Big One For One Drop below:
WSOP 2012 Event 55: The Big One For One Drop
Final Rankings |
||||
| Place | Name | Prize | ||
| 1st |  Antonio Esfandiari |
$18,346,673 | ||
| 2nd |  Sam Trickett |
$10,112,001 | ||
| 3rd | David Einhorn |
$4,352,000 | ||
| 4th | Phil Hellmuth |
$2,645,333 | ||
| 5th |  Guy Laliberte |
$1,834,666 | ||
| 6th | Brian Rast |
$1,621,333 | ||
| 7th | Bobby Baldwin |
$1,408,000 | ||
| 8th |  Richard Yong |
$1,237,333 | ||
|
Players: 1 (48) | Prize Pool: $42,666,672 |
||||
Neil Willerson wins Event #53: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
WSOP 2012 Event 53: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Final Rankings |
||||
| Place | Name | Prize | ||
| 1st | Neil Willerson |
$737,248 | ||
| 2nd |  Vladimir Mefodichev |
$456,217 | ||
| 3rd | Hugh Henderson |
$322,866 | ||
| 4th | Zachary Humphrey |
$233,708 | ||
| 5th | Matthew Graham |
$171,135 | ||
| 6th |  Hai Chu |
$126,770 | ||
| 7th | Bryan Piccioli |
$94,971 | ||
| 8th | Randy Ashe |
$71,933 | ||
| 9th | Ryan Hughes |
$55,093 | ||
|
Players: 1 (3,166) | Prize Pool: $4,274,100 |
||||
Event #54: $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Day 3
The heads-up match was paused for the night and will conclude tomorrow:
WSOP 2012 Event 54: $1,000 No Limit Hold'em
End of Day 3 chip counts/payouts |
||||
| Place | Name | Prize/Chips | ||
| - | Will Jaffe | 5,390,000 | ||
| - | Luis Campelo | 4,275,000 | ||
| 3rd | Joseph Kuether |
$218,983 | ||
| 4th | Nghi Van Tran |
$158,512 | ||
| 5th | Ken Fishman |
$116,072 | ||
| 6th |  Jason Tompkins |
$85,981 | ||
| 7th |  Perati Muhamet |
$64,414 | ||
| 8th | Benjamin Grise |
$48,788 | ||
| 9th | Jeffrey Fielder |
$37,367 | ||
|
Players: 2 (3,221) | Prize Pool: $2,898,900 Average Chips: 4,832,500 | Blinds: 60,000/120,000/15,000 |
||||
Event #56: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Day 2
WSOP 2012 Event #56: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
End of Day 2 Chip Counts |
||||
| Place | Name | Chips | ||
| 1st | Donald Vogel | 1,297,000 | ||
| 2nd | Gianluca Mattia | 1,271,000 | ||
| 3rd | Peter Eastgate | 1,043,000 | ||
| 4th | David Borg | 923,000 | ||
| 5th | Eliyahu Levy | 818,000 | ||
| 6th | Matthieu Auclair | 727,000 | ||
| 7th | Tomas Trampota | 699,000 | ||
| 8th | Bastian Fischer | 616,000 | ||
| 9th | Paul Vas Nunes | 610,000 | ||
| 10th | Alexander Queen | 585,000 | ||
| 13th | Sam Holden | 425,000 | ||
| 14th | Bassel Moussa | 409,000 | ||
| 17th | Tomas Junek | 393,000 | ||
| 22nd | Will Failla | 85,000 | ||
|
Players: 22 (2,798) | Prize Pool: $3,777,300 Average Chips: 72,318 | Blinds: 6,000/12,000/2,000 |
||||
Event #57: $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed Day 1
WSOP 2012 Event #57: $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed
End of Day 1 Chip Counts |
||||
| Place | Name | Chips | ||
| 1st | Stanislav Barshak | 230,700 | ||
| 2nd | Artem Kobylynskyi | 222,900 | ||
| 3rd | Valentyn Shabelnyk | 185,600 | ||
| 4th | Darren Elias | 181,800 | ||
| 5th | Alexander Nudin | 178,700 | ||
| 6th | Sam Chartier | 178,100 | ||
| 7th | Nicholas Maimone | 171,800 | ||
| 8th | Carter Phillips | 170,200 | ||
| 9th | William Givens | 169,000 | ||
| 10th | Hafiz Khan | 164,600 | ||
| 11th | Ludovic Lacay | 160,700 | ||
| 20th | Shaun Deeb | 148,600 | ||
| 21st | Jason Mercier | 148,300 | ||
| 40th | Isaac Haxton | 115,600 | ||
|
Players: 167 (474) | Prize Pool: $4,455,600 Average Chips: 95,688 | Blinds: 500/1,000/100 |
||||
Event #58: $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Low Day 1
Official counts were not available the time of writing, so the following chip counts are unofficial:
WSOP 2012 Event #58: $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Low
End of Day 1 Chip Counts |
||||
| Place | Name | Chips | ||
| 1st | Jennifer Tilly | 41,000 | ||
| 2nd | Barry Greenstein | 33,000 | ||
| 3rd | John Cernuto | 33,000 | ||
| 4th | Ray Henson | 32,000 | ||
| 5th | Dario Alioto | 28,000 | ||
| 6th | Mike Wattel | 25,500 | ||
| 7th | Scotty Nguyen | 25,500 | ||
| 8th | Ben Yu | 21,300 | ||
| 9th | Erick Lindgren | 20,000 | ||
| 10th | Jon Turner | 17,500 | ||
| - | Huck Seed | 16,800 | ||
| - | Alexander Kravchenko | 13,400 | ||
| - | Brian Hastings | 11,700 | ||
| - | Pius Heinz | 9,000 | ||
|
Players: 189 (526) | Prize Pool: $1,435,980 Average Chips: 25,407 | Blinds: 300/600 |
||||
Upcoming Events
WSOP 2012: Upcoming Events
|
|||
| Event |
Buy-in & Game Type |
Date | |
| 59 | $1,000 No Limit Hold'em | July 4 | |
| 60 | $10,000 2-7 Single Draw | July 5 | |
| 61 | $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event | July 7 |
|
| WSOP 2012 - Medal Ranking Table | |||
| Country |  Gold |
 Silver |
 Bronze |
| USA |
42 | 41 | 44 |
| Canada |
3 | 3 | 2 |
| UK |
1 | 2 | 5 |
 Ukraine |
1 | 1 | - |
 Germany |
1 | 1 | - |
 France |
1 | 1 | 1 |
 Bulgaria |
1 | - | 1 |
 The Netherlands |
1 | - | - |
 Belgium |
1 | - | - |
| Italy |
1 | - | - |
 Japan |
1 | - | - |
 Australia |
- | 3 | - |
 Russia |
- | 1 | - |
 Sweden |
- | 1 | - |
 Switzerland |
- | 1 | - |
 Spain |
- | - | 1 |
 Marshall Islands |
- | - | 1 |
 Belarus |
- | - | 1 |
 Portugal |
- | - | 1 |
