Is banning pros from One Drop a good idea?
Is it right to exclude professional players from the biggest buy-in tournament in poker history?
This week Guy Laliberte announced a €1 million Big One for One Drop event in Monte Carlo between October 13-17. With the Euro being stronger than the Dollar this makes this the biggest buy-in event in history, but perhaps more notable is the decision to exclude professional players from the event.
Pros are invited to coach or play in side games, but the Main Event is strictly off limits. Leaving the event open for wealthy businessmen, philanthropists, celebrities and other recreational players to play with significantly less of a skill deficit than they would in typical Super High Rollers.
So is excluding the best players in the world from the biggest event ever staged a good idea?
Playing against the best stops being fun
No doubt many rich high roller types will welcome this news. While it is fun for recreational players to share a table with the best in the world, when you are targeted by eight of them at your table every time you play, the game becomes less fun. You want to gamble and don’t mind losing big money but you want to feel that you could win, but that isn’t realistic when you have Phil Ivey on your right and Fedor Holz on your left.
This is why the infamous Hollywood home games as depicted in Molly’s Game made a point of never inviting professionals. This is why you need a special invite to play the Big Game in Macau. It’s not that pros are not always welcome, but they are expected at least to ‘keep their customers happy' and give action. Eight GTO experts at your table playing perfect poker is not fun.
The numbers were up again this year in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller which demonstrates why it is so tough for the rich recreational players these days. It’s not difficult for 180 professionals to get staked into these events. The few rich amateurs make it +EV for backers and the horses don’t mind playing for a small percentage of themselves as even a min-cash makes for a big result.
A win for everyone
So I anticipate this event will be very popular and get big numbers which is good for all concerned. My golden rule of poker is that the only way to ensure that losing players continue to play is to make it possible for them to win now and then, as well as making sure they enjoy themselves. This event should likely embolden them to play in future, open, high rollers. With €111,111 of every buy-in going to charity and no doubt several players likely to donate their winnings to charity, this is obviously going to be great PR for poker too. More so if some bonafide celebrities decide to play.
It will be interesting to watch the coverage of this event, as we may see the biggest prize pool ever in poker and also the worst standard of poker being played. That could be entertaining in itself. It might also throw several previously unknown players straight into the top ten of the all-time money rankings, making them even more meaningless.
The final question is how do we define a professional in this context? Dan Shak is not strictly a pro but widely considered to be up there in terms of ability. Technically you could call players like Phil Galfond ‘businessmen’ because they also run websites and have other ventures. It’s hard to have a clear definition but I think Mr Laliberte will know a pro when he sees one and vet them accordingly.
Ultimately this is a private event ran by a private company and they are entitled to do whatever they want. However, I think this event is a net positive for everyone in poker and I hope everyone in the game gets behind it.
