Poker News 
/ Short-Stacked Shamus / 30 March 2012 / Leave a Comment 
"The Big One for One Drop" will be the largest buy-in event in WSOP history, and likely will award the largest prize ever at the Series, too.
Should The Big One reach its 48-player cap, the top nine finishers will cash with 43% of the prize pool going to the winner. That would mean a whopping $18,346,668.96 first prize, crushing the previous WSOP all-time high of $12 million won by Jamie Gold at the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
We are less than two months away from the start of the 2012 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Starting May 27th a record 61 bracelet events will be contested through mid-July, plus a 62nd bracelet awarded in the WSOP National Championship culminating the 2011-2012 WSOP-Circuit series. And on July 1st -- just before the Main Event -- will come the biggest buy-in tournament in poker history, the much-heralded $1 million tourney appropriately tagged "The Big One."
First announced at the start of last summer's WSOP, The Big One for One Drop is the brainchild of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté. The part-time poker player approached Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber -- like Laliberté from Montreal -- regarding the possibility of staging a $1 million tournament at the WSOP in which a portion of the buy-in would go to the One Drop Foundation, a charitable organization Laliberté founded that aims to fight poverty worldwide by increasing access to safe water.
Garber and the WSOP agreed to the idea, with $111,111 of the buy-in designated to go to One Drop. By last December, 22 players had already committed to play in the event. A few months later it appears as though considerably more players will be participating in the The Big One (Event No. 55 on the 2012 WSOP schedule), thus ensuring what will likely be the biggest single first-prize in WSOP history.
WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky appeared on the Two Plus Two Pokercast last month (the 2/14/12 episode) where among other topics he talked about The Big One. There Palansky noted that when the event was first added to the schedule, it was decided that at least 22 players would have to participate for it to become an official WSOP bracelet event. That total was decided upon as 22 was the field size for the 1976 WSOP Main Event, the first won by Doyle Brunson.
On the show, Palansky spoke of a 48-player cap being put on The Big One, and suggested that there is a great likelihood the event will in fact reach that cap. If that were to happen, the payout schedule for the tournament indicates that with 48 players the top nine finishers will make the money, with 43% of the prize pool going to the winner.
That would mean a whopping $18,346,668.96 first prize, crushing the previous WSOP all-time high of $12 million won by Jamie Gold for finishing first at the 2006 WSOP Main Event. According to the payout schedule, a minimum of 29 must play The Big One for that first prize to trip up over $12 million.
Back in December we learned that 22 players had confirmed their intention to play, a group including Laliberté, Patrik Antonius, Bobby Baldwin, Andy Beal, Johnny Chan, Jonathan Duhamel, Tom Dwan, Bertrand Grospellier, Tony Guoga, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ruffin, and Dan Shak.
On the podcast, Palansky also tossed out a few other interesting items regarding who will be participating in The Big One. There he said we should expect to find people from the sports world, lottery winners, hedge fund managers, and some Macau businessmen among the participants. Palansky also indicated at least one woman would be playing as well.
I had a chance this week to ask Palansky a few follow-up questions regarding The Big One and expectations regarding it.
Short-Stacked Shamus: On the Two Plus Two Pokercast you mentioned that there was a good chance The Big One would reach its cap of 48 players. Is there any chance that cap might be lifted if needed?
Seth Palansky: The cap at 48 will stay in place. The only possible exception is due to a guaranteed Mega Satellite ($25,300) we're running at the Rio on June 30. We'll award one seat per 40 entries there, thus all those winners would be guaranteed seats.
SSS: What percentage of the field will be familiar to most of the poker world (e.g., well-known pros, Laliberté, Ruffin, etc.) and what % will be those largely unknown to a lot of us?
SP: I think you will recognize 60-70 percent of the names/faces, but a large percentage will be unfamiliar to most. There is a lot of interest from the business community.
SSS: There was a bit of hubbub over the last week regarding a player attempting to recruit backers to participate in the event. Any thoughts on such arrangements?
SP: Yes, I heard the most recent creative way to get into this event. It isn't the first. A gentleman in the U.K. is/was trying something similar. Our thoughts are that we applaud the creativity, however we prefer this event to be looked at through its intended charitable light and for those who can afford the buy-in themselves. There are also a host of legal and regulatory challenges in soliciting monies and we certainly don't recommend or encourage that approach, despite perhaps the good intention.
Regarding Palansky's latter point about The Big One's charity component, should 48 players participate that will mean the event will ultimately raise more than $5.33 million for the One Drop Foundation, not to mention increase the charity's profile and thus encourage more to contribute.
Of note, all donations to One Drop go to support its many projects designed to get water to those in need as well as increase awareness regarding water shortages worldwide, with all of the foundation's administrative expenses covered by Laliberté. You can find out more about One Drop at the foundation's website.
It appears even before the first hands of The Big One have been dealt that the tournament will have been a success. And once the tourney does begin on July 1 there will be a great deal of attention on the event to see who among the players walks away with the biggest-ever prize in poker. For more details on the tournament, including the structure (in which players will start with 3 million chips!), click here.
Much thanks to Seth Palansky for taking the time to answer questions about The Big One.
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