Big One for One Drop Tournament to Return in 2014

When Antonio Esfandiari won the 2012 Big One for One Drop poker tournament, the Iranian-born American poker pro took home a record payout of more than $18.3 million.

Though the tournament, which benefits the One Drop foundation, a non-governmental organization supporting water access rights established by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, did not run this year, last week it was announced via a press release that the Big One for One Drop will be back next year, and the top prize could surpass $20 million.

Event to be held in conjunction with 2014 WSOP

The Big One for One Drop isn’t just known for having a huge payout; the buy-in is also eye-popping at a cool $1 million. For the next incarnation of the event, to be held over three days during next summer’s 45th World Series of Poker, the entrant pool will be expanded to accommodate fifty-six deep-pocketed poker enthusiasts.

“With the new 56 player cap, the first place prize has the potential to reach in excess of $20,000,000 if every seat is filled. Additionally, the odds of cashing are better than a typical poker tournament, with 16-20% of entrants receiving a portion of the prize pool, depending on the final number of entrants,” the press release, put out last Friday, read in part. The 2012 event did fully sell out.

Featuring both the biggest-ever buy-in and the most lucrative first place take in the history of poker, the 2012 captivated poker fans while also managing to raise a healthy amount of money to help fund the One Drop Foundation, which is based in Canada.

Speaking to that success, Laliberté, himself a native of Canada, said, “It was a terrific inaugural event in 2012 with ONE DROP raising nearly $5.7 million from the BIG ONE event. There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure access to water for all. I have no doubt that the poker community will once again live up to its reputation for generosity by helping to transform lives sustainably.”

Big One will mostly be held away from the Rio

One noteworthy change for the 2014 Big One for One Drop tournament is that, unlike all the other WSOP events, the Big One will be held at Caesars instead of at the Rio. The final table will however be played at the Rio. The entire event is scheduled to take place from June 29 through July 1, 2014.

Though the final schedule for the 2014 WSOP – which incidentally launched the second real money regulated online poker site in Nevada last month – has yet to be released, WSOP officials say that it is expecting to firm up some of the dates sometime next month.