Poker Pros React To Esfandiari's $18 Million WSOP Triumph

Just a few days ago Antonio Esfandiari won the biggest prize in poker, as well as sporting history, after taking down the $1 million buy-in WSOP ‘The Big One For One Drop,’ for a massive $18,346,673.
Instantly propelling himself from 73rd ($4,685,823) on poker’s ‘All Time Money List’ to 1st by a country mile, The Magician’s WSOP triumph has obviously caused quite a reaction from the pros, and poker community in general. Here are a selection of some of the comments and tweets made by Esfandiari’s peers:
Antonio Esfandiari
“I just knew I was going to win. You have to put it out there and believe it and sometimes it comes true.”
Phil Hellmuth
“He’s definitely a great poker player. There’s no doubt about it. He has a style that’s super, super fast and he can just completely run over a table…His reading abilities are also really good. I give him credit.”
Jennifer Tilly
“I never doubted that he could do it though. He took a positive mentality lecture a while back and he’s been really focused ever since. He sent an email to Phil the other day saying ‘This is my time.'”
Phil Laak
“I cried a lot. When he gave the bracelet to his dad, I cried again. Super baller.”
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
“I think it’s pretty good. It would’ve been nice to see Guy [Laliberte] win since it was his event and he does so much for charity, but Antonio is a good player and he played great.”
Erik Seidel
“For me, it was an odd situation because I wanted the business men to win who were gonna give the money to charity, but it was also cool to see two elite players battle it out heads-up for the money. I think Sam is arguably the best no-limit tournament player in the world at the moment, and obviously Antonio’s a great player who’s been around a long time so it was a monster heads-up match.”
Jonathan Duhamel
“I think it’s really cool, and congrats to him for win. He’s a really good guy and he speaks well so I think he will be a very good ambassador for the poker players. I would’ve liked to see Guy win though since he does so much for everyone.”
Jason Mercier
“Antonio asked me to swap 1% when he had 12 mill and I had 11 mill and position on him. I declined. Then he busts me KK vs AA. Then he wins. #JBL.”
Ryan “Daut44” Daut
“Huge congrats to @magicantonio. He is the definition of ‘shark.'”
J.C. “PrtyPsux” Alvarado
“$18 motherf**king million. Holy shit! I’m too much of a hater to be happy for a poker player who won 18 mil in 3 days. Sorry.”
David Doc Sands Sands
“Very impressive work @MagicAntonio. Congrats @Samtrickett1 as well. Sam’s only mistake was not wearing a cut-off during HU play #liveandlearn.”
Jon “sketchy1” Eaton
“Damn it, I can’t even win the Main Event twice and pass up Antonio now. #fb.”