The Big One For One Drop Player Profiles [Part 1]
The $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop tournament at the WSOP will begin on Sunday, July 1st. There is a 48-player cap on participants, and it is highly anticipated that the cap will be reached. Who's going to play?
One Drop is a charitable organization started by Canadian Guy Laliberté, a billionaire philanthropist and poker enthusiast who gained his fame and fortune by founding Cirque du Soleil.
According to its mission statement, One Drop "fights poverty by supporting access to water and raising individual and community awareness of the need to mobilize so that safe water is accessible by all, in sufficient quantity, today and tomorrow."
On July 1st, the World Series of Poker will host "The Big One For One Drop", a $1 million buy-in event with $111,111 of each buy-in going directly to One Drop as a charitable donation. The winner will receive a platinum WSOP bracelet and a whole lot of cash.
Who's playing?
The event's field is capped at 48 entrants, and a mix of wealthy businessmen and professional poker players have already signed up to play. By the end of this week we plan on providing profiles on all 48 of these individuals - the first 12 can be found below.
| Guy Laliberté, Cirque du Soleil CEO | ||
| Age: 52 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $773,320 |  |
| Nationality: Canadian | Major Tournament Wins: None | |
| Biography: Guy Laliberté was born in Quebec City, Canada. At a young age he worked as a street performer - playing the accordion, stilt walking, and fire-eating. In 1984 Laliberté founded Cirque du Soleil with a group of other similar performers.
Cirque du Soleil was an enormous success, and today Laliberté is worth an estimated $2.6 billion. Guy runs the One Drop Foundation, plays high-stakes poker, and was the first Canadian space tourist. |
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| Andy Beal, Beal Bank Founder and Chairman | ||
| Age: 59 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: None |  |
| Nationality: American | Major Tournament Wins: None | |
| Biography: Andy Beal was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan. Beal founded Beal Financial, which today includes Beal Bank. His estimated net worth is $6.6 billion, and he is the richest man in his current home of Dallas, Texas.
Beal was featured in Michael Craig's book "The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King". The book told the story of Beal playing heads-up Limit Hold'em against a group of Las Vegas pros at stakes of up to $100K/$200K. In one 3-day span, Beal lost $16.6 million playing against Phil Ivey. |
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| Arnaud Mimran, Investor | ||
| Age: 38 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $33,846 |  |
| Nationality: French | Major Tournament Wins: None | |
| Biography: Arnaud Mimran is a French businessman who comes from a wealthy family and makes most of his living in real estate.
Mimran's poker experience isn't extensive, but he's not a stranger to the game either - in 2006 he finished in 13th place at the PokerStars EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Mimran has been romantically connected to Paraguayan model Claudia Galanti. |
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| Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Poker Player | ||
| Age: 31 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $10,024,926 |  |
| Nationality: French | Major Tournament Wins: 1 WSOP, 1 WPT, 1 EPT | |
| Biography: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is a French poker pro and former pro gamer. Before discovering poker, ElkY was one of the top-ranked StarCraft players in the world, with several top-5 finishes in major tournaments.
Grospellier is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and has completed poker's triple crown by winning WSOP, WPT, and EPT titles. He holds a Guinness World Record for most Single Table S&G's played in one hour with a profit (62). |
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| Bobby Baldwin, CityCenter President and CEO | ||
| Age: ~61 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $911,679 |  |
| Nationality: American | Major Tournament Wins: 4 WSOP | |
| Biography: It would be impossible to classify Bobby Baldwin as strictly a businessman or poker player. Although today he's the President and CEO of CityCenter (the Las Vegas complex which includes the Aria Casino), Baldwin was an enormously successful poker pro before his days as a casino executive.
In the late 1970s, Baldwin won 4 WSOP bracelets, including the 1978 Main Event. "Bobby's Room", the high-stakes poker room at the Bellagio Casino, is named after Baldwin. |
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| Bob Bright, Bright Trading CEO | ||
| Age: N/A | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $756,755 |  |
| Nationality: American | Major Tournament Wins: None | |
| Biography: Bob Bright began his professional career in the US Army, but he frequently made more money playing in poker games than he did from his salary. Today he is the CEO of Bright Trading, a Las Vegas-based Proprietary Stock trading firm.
At the poker tables, Bright still plays regularly - in fact, he has cashed in 2 WSOP events this year. His largest cash was a 3rd place finish in a $2K NLHE WSOP event in 2006 for $261,170. |
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| Cary Katz, College Loan Corporation CEO | ||
| Age: N/A | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $681,203 |  |
| Nationality: American | Major Tournament Wins: None | |
| Biography: Cary Katz founded the College Loan Corporation in 1999. Today, the company is the 7th largest provider of education loans in the United States. Katz is also Chairman of the Stop Child Predators Partnership, a non-profit organization which aims to protect children and hold child victimizers accountable.
Katz can frequently be found at poker tables, and he has dozens of live tournament cashes including 1 WSOP final table. |
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| Daniel Negreanu, Poker Player | ||
| Age: 37 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $16,176,540 |  |
| Nationality: Canadian | Major Tournament Wins: 4 WSOP, 2 WPT | |
| Biography: Daniel Negreanu is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and 3rd on the all-time tournament earnings leaderboard. Raised in Toronto, Negreanu dropped out of high school to hustle pool and play cards.
At the age of 22 Negreanu moved to Las Vegas, but he had to move back to Toronto once before returning to Vegas permanently. Today, Negreanu is one of the most famous and successful poker players in the world. |
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| Dan Shak, Hedge Fund Manager | ||
| Age: 52 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $3,743,177 |  |
| Nationality: American | Major Tournament Wins: None | |
| Biography: Dan Shak is a very successful poker player with over $3.7 million in lifetime tournament earnings, but he works full-time as a hedge fund manager. In January, Shak made business headlines when he shook up the gold futures market by selling $850 million worth of highly leveraged gold contracts - roughly 10% of the market at the time - at a loss.
Shak was formerly married to poker pro Beth Shak, and this week filed a lawsuit against her regarding their divorce settlement. |
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| Erik Seidel, Poker Player | ||
| Age: 52 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $16,943,897 |  |
| Nationality: American | Major Tournament Wins: 8 WSOP, 1 WPT | |
| Biography: Erik Seidel is first on the all-time tournament earnings leaderboard and a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. He was born in New York City where he played pro backgammon prior to poker, and he was a regular at the now-legendary Mayfair Club.
Despite 8 WSOP bracelets, Seidel's most famous WSOP result could be his 2nd-place finish to Johnny Chan in the 1988 Main Event. That final table was prominently featured in the film "Rounders". |
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| Giovanni "Malibu" Guarascio | |
| Age: N/A | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: None |
| Nationality: Canadian | Major Tournament Wins: None |
| Biography: Giovanni "Malibu" Guarascio is quite likely the One Drop participant we know the least about. Guarascio won his seat in a privately held satellite which took place in Montreal. | |
| Gus Hansen, Poker Player | ||
| Age: 38 | Lifetime Tournament Earnings: $10,210,072 |  |
| Nationality: Danish | Major Tournament Wins: 1 WSOP, 3 WPT, 1 Aussie Millions | |
| Biography: Gus Hansen is a Danish professional poker player and former professional backgammon player. Hansen has been known to gamble on quite a bit more than those two games, however. In 2009, he lost a bet to fellow poker pro Theo Jorgensen by losing a boxing match between the two men.
Hansen is known as an extremely aggressive poker player, and as such his bankroll takes massive swings. Playing online, he has had years as both one of the biggest losers in the world AND years as one of the biggest winners. |
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