Big One for One Drop Photo Gallery
Cirque du Soleil drums pounding in the Rio Amazon room, a crowd of poker fans with phone cameras aloft, the WSOP’s first ever $1 million buy-in tournament started Sunday afternoon. Guy Laliberte’s One Drop charity, which helps provides safe drinking water worldwide, sponsored the event and had raised more than $5.8 million.
The 48-player tournament is a veritable who’s who of the poker world — Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Bobby Baldwin, Mike Sexton, Antonio Esfandiari, “Elky” Bertrand Grospellier, Jason Mercier, Phil Galfond, Gus Hanson, Roland De Wolfe, Haralabos Voulgaris, among others.
More than an hour into the tournament, however, fans were still awaiting a (grand?) entrance from 12-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, known for his self-aggrandizing late arrivals in big tournaments.
-
- Fans try to get a glimpse of the lineup at Big One For One Drop
-
- Big One For One Drop feature table
-
- One Drop table featuring Durrrr
-
- One Drop table featuring Jonathan Duhamel
-
- One Drop table featuring Negreanu
-
- One Drop table featuring Elky and Jason Mercier
-
- Food cart for millionaires, and/or billionaires
-
- One Drop founder Guy Laliberté announces “shuffle up and deal” for the biggest tournament in WSOP history
-
- One Drop table featuring Ivey, Seidel and Esfandiari
Dan Michalski says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:32pm
It’s nice to see a charity event where the amount donated and the prize pool all actually add up.
Dan Michalski says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:33pm
How did Antonio get in? And who won the big satellite yesterday?
Dave Ferrara says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:47pm
Update: Hellmuth arrived rather uneventfully. That is to say: without a chariot or an entourage of bikini-clad ladies.
Dave Ferrara says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:50pm
Antonio bought in, as far as I know. Hansen won the satellite at Rio last night, and Hellmuth won a VIP satty at MGM.
Dan Michalski says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:57pm
interesting for antonio. must be all that Victory Poker money, lol.
Dave Ferrara says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:52pm
The noticeable absence, of course, is Doyle Brunson.
Dan Michalski says:
July 1st, 2012 at 2:58pm
and yeah, so interesting on brunson not playing. did he give any indication as why he didn’t consider it? i would think playing in the biggest buy-in event ever (in Las Vegas) would be a matter of pride for him.