Founded in 2007 by Guy Laliberté, who also happens to be the father of Cirque du Soleil, the ONE DROP foundation is a non-profit organization aimed at improving communities’ access to water. Numerous initiatives have been organized to raise money for the good cause since the foundation’s inception; and the Big One for ONE DROP poker tournament taking place every two years is probably the most popular such initiative.
The event was first held in 2012 as part of the 43rd annual World Series of Poker. It was a $1,000,000 buy-in one and a portion of every entry’s buy-in went directly to the ONE DROP foundation. Thus, millions of dollars were raised for the non-profit organization and its activities since the event first took place four years ago.
The Big One for ONE DROP’s second edition was held in 2014, once again as part of the WSOP. Given the huge amounts of money at stake, the event has turned into one of the most highly anticipated ones by fans of the WSOP festival. However, the poker community had to wait a little longer this year, as the Big One for ONE DROP was announced to be taking place within its own poker festival from October 13-17.
The tournament’s host venue was changed from Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, where the WSOP takes place annually, to Casino de Monte-Carlo in the beautiful European city-state of Monaco. The buy-in fee was also changed to €1,000,000, thus making it the highest buy-in event in poker history.
This year’s Big One for ONE DROP event kicked off on Friday, October 14. Day 1 of the event saw 28 entries paying the mammoth buy-in. Of them, there were 25 unique players and 3 re-entries. Here it is important to note that the tournament’s Day 1 allowed unlimited re-entries, thus giving players the chance to re-buy as many times as they wished. Registration for the event will remain open until the start of Day 2, which is set to kick off today at noon local time.
The 2016 edition of the Big One for ONE DROP was said to be an invitational one. What is more, it was initially announced that no professional players would be allowed to enter it and that this year’s event would feature prominent businesspersons instead. However, it turned out that there were some professional players to be admitted to the Casino de Monte-Carlo tables to play in the exciting event. It is true that some of them were no longer playing that often, but still their knowledge of the game could be said to be much better than their opponents’ who have played poker only recreationally.
Active players like Dan Shak, Cary Katz, and Paul Phua were joined by 1978 WSOP Main Event winner Bobby Baldwin and Mark Teltscher, as well as Hollywood celebrity Rick Salomon, and Canadian pop-star Garou, and many more to form the elite company of entries.
Guy Laliberté was, too, among the Day 1 participants. In fact, the ONE DROP founder was the one to open the action and the one to be eliminated first. However, he re-bought into the event. Canadian Andrew Pantling was also among those to bust and re-enter.
As many as 24 players bagged their chips for the night on Friday. They will return today for Day 2 of the event. As mentioned above, registration is still open, which means that they may be joined by some late-comers.
Pennsylvania-born entrepreneur and investor Alfred De Carolis ended Day 1 as the chip leader. The player accumulated a stack of 13,825,000 by the end of the day, followed by Dan Shak with 10,735,000. The players were the only two to pass the 10-million mark. De Carolis maintained a good chip position throughout the day. Eventually, he took the lead and did not relinquished it until the very end Day 1.
