More Than 40 Gamblers Pony Up $1 Million For World Series Of Poker Tournament

Card Player’s 2014 WSOP coverage is sponsored by CarbonPoker.

The priciest poker tournament in two years began seating players on Sunday afternoon at the 2014 World Series of Poker. The second running of the $1 million “Big One for One Drop” tournament drew a field of 42 before the end of the second level, bringing in a mixture of pros and amateur players who wanted to gamble a seven-figure sum on a card game.

The event has a 56-player cap, up from 48 players in 2012. The early stages of the 2014 rendition made it clear that the higher cap wouldn’t be reached. Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, who worked with the WSOP to organize One Drop, wasn’t upset at the smaller-than-anticipated turnout.

“Like any successful event, after the first year it’s always difficult to make it successful a second year,” Laliberté told Card Player moments before the first hands were dealt. “We’ve reached more than 40 players, and I’m very happy about that. That’s a lot of money for One Drop. I am overwhelmed by that. The rest is about having a great game and having everyone excited. Fifty six was there as a potential goal. Last time, at the 48, we refused one or two players, so we said to ourselves, ‘we can’t afford to not have more money for One Drop.’ You know, this is the time of the World Cup, and a lot of potential players are down [in Brazil]. So, we can’t be disappointed.”

One of the players who did make it out to compete in a seven-figure poker tournament was high-stakes online grinder Daniel Cates—who is one of Internet poker’s most successful players of all-time. The Maryland native said the One Drop tournament is exciting, but “ridiculous in a way.”

“I kind of look at these events as not that meaningful. As you know, there’s a shitload of hype around this $1 million tournament, when the results are essentially meaningless,” Cates said. “But there’s a part of me that’s really excited and says, ‘f—k it, I want to win.’”

Daniel Negreanu expressed a similar sentiment, saying that despite a higher-than-usual buy-in, it’s just another WSOP event and he is looking for a bracelet. A win would be the seventh of his career.

When asked if the tournament was good value since some players in the field aren’t professional grinders, Cates said that the rake actually ruins the value. ($111,111 from each $1 million buy-in goes towards Laliberté’s charity to provide drinking water to people in poor countries). Cates did point out that the rake is going to a good cause, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s not the best investment at the end of the day. Poker pros, unlike the billionaire Laliberté, can’t drop $1 million like it’s nothing. So, like many in the field, Cates looked for investors to fund his expensive buy-in. He said he’d profit around $2.5 million from the tournament in the event that he won.

On paper, the first-place prize should be in the neighborhood of $16 million.

Cates said he is also “hedging” his bets by taking pieces of eight people in the tournament. “They are all small pieces,” he added. “I have the biggest pieces of myself, obviously. I wanted to make sure that if I get there, it would still be a lot of money…but it probably wouldn’t change my life that much (laughs).” It actually seems like very few could win life-changing money in One Drop.

In addition to the illusion that many players have put up $1 million of their own money to enter, one of the biggest myths of the tournament is the idea that the businessmen who play poker recreationally aren’t too great at poker. Brandon Steven, a car dealership owner from Kansas who played One Drop for a second time, said that many of the pros underestimate the skill level of the businessmen who registered. Steven plays in some of the biggest cash games in the world against high-stakes gamblers from Macau—and he holds his own.

“There are a lot of amateurs, sure, but they aren’t total amateurs,” Cates said of the competition. “They aren’t going to just punt it off, especially in this tournament.” According to Negreanu, the amateur businessman player “isn’t easy to beat,” and “it’s the guys who underestimate them who will be the easiest ones to beat.” In other words, over-adjusting to a non-pro could be killer.

With all that said, there is obviously a skill differential between players and some will be looking to exploit opponents who just don’t think of the game as deeply as the Issac Haxton’s of the world. (By the way, Haxton was one of the entries in the event.) One of the softer spots will be gregarious poker player Jean-Robbert Bellande, who received a 100-percent stake for the event.

Despite playing in high-stakes cash games in Las Vegas, Bellande embraces an image of “broke living.” He isn’t broke like the people living in the water drains under the Strip, but Bellande has come to be known for vicious bankroll swings. He said if he wins he might shed the tagline “for the month or two I have money.”

Bellande is also hoping to start another poker boom.

“I think I am kind of the everyman’s guy,” Bellande said. “I think a lot of people are living vicariously through me. They are like, ‘how the heck can that guy get into this event? If he can get in, I can get in. I can play just as good as that guy.’ And, you know, me winning would be great for poker. I think I am a pretty good ambassador for poker already, but the idea that kind of a regular guy who plays cards can play this event—and possibly even win it—I think it’s exciting for people. Just like when Chris Moneymaker won the main event, I think me winning an event like this would do a lot for poker, and for sure we’d see a much larger turnout in all the tournaments.”

When asked if playing in a $1 million tournament was nerve-racking for him, Bellande shrugged it off, saying, “no, but it’s probably nerve-racking for the guys who put me in (laughs).”

While the tension in the room was mounting, Cates said something else might be taking up some of his focus. Cates was close with German poker pro Johannes Strassmann, who passed away last week in an accidental drowning. Cates said that his late friend will be on his mind during One Drop. According to Cates, Strassmann’s death probably won’t negatively affect his play, as Strassmann would have wanted him to continue grinding on in life.

“I’m not going to sit in my room crying because I’m not that kind of person,” Cates said, “but I think it’s going to affect us for a long time.”

In addition to the aforementioned players, the following also registered for the 2014 One Drop tournament: Sam Trickett, Tom Hall, Rono Lo, Vanessa Selbst, Dan Smith, Phil Ivey, Christoph Volgelsang, Tobias Reinkemeier, Daniel Colman, Niklas Heinecker, Scott Seiver, Phil Galfond, Bill Klein, Paul Newey, Erik Seidel, David Sands, Tony Gregg, Jason Mercier, John Morgan, Max Altergott, Antonio Esfandiari (2012’s champion), Talal Shakerchi, John Juanda, Connor Drinan, Cary Katz, Noah Schwartz, Rick Solomon, Igor Kurganov, Brian Rast, Greg Merson, Doug Polk, Stanley Choi, Philipp Gruissem, Erick Lindgren, David Einhorn and Gabe Kaplan.

Registration is set to close at around 10 or 11 p.m. local time.

For more coverage from the 2014 summer Series, visit our WSOP landing page.

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