€1M Tournament To Feature 35 Recreational Players

On October 14th, the Casino De Monte-Carlo in Monaco will play host to the highly anticipated €1 million Big One for One Drop poker tournament. Unlike in previous years, however, the event will feature only amateur players and wealthy businessmen, with €111,111 of their buy-ins subsequently going towards the One Drop charity, which aims to provide clean water to impoverished communities.
The charity was set up by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, who is also the creator of the One Drop Extravaganza poker tournament. So far, two $1 million One Drop events have been held, both taking place in Las Vegas, and both won by professional players, namely Antonio Esfandiari (2012 ) for $18,346,673 and Daniel Colman (2014) for $15,306,668.
However, some wealthy amateur players complained about the intense pressure they had been put under by the pros, and a lack of fun from competing in what should have been a charitable event. The 2014 winner Dan Colman also did little to endear himself to the amateur players in the field after taking down the event, as he complained that he had no interest in promoting the game, and labelled poker a “very dark game.” As a result, this year just 35 players, all amateurs, will compete in the One Drop event, and as Laliberté commented back in July:
“The message I got was these recreational players, businessmen and philanthropists felt like they physically did not stand a chance. They wanted to play for the money and the fun of it, but they would rather stake a pro than risk playing themselves against a field of professionals.”
Nevertheless, a number of other poker events will also be featured that will be open to professional participation, with the full schedule of events taking place between Oct. 13-17 as follows:
Oct. 14: €1M Big One for One Drop Invitational
Oct. 14: €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Oct. 14: €10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Oct. 15: €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Oct. 15: €10,000 NLHE/PLO Mix
Oct. 16: €10,000 Six-Max
Oct. 16: €50,000 Heads Up
Oct. 17: €100,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Oct. 17: €1,000,000 Cash Game