Daniel Colman Wins $15.3 Million In 2014 Big One For One Drop:

At the beginning of April, Daniel Colman had roughly $350,000 in live tournament earnings to his name.

Now, just a few months later, the 23-year-old from Holden, Massachusetts is ranked sixth on the all-time money list with $18,785,680 in cashes, the majority of which he earned by emerging victorious in the 2014 World Series of Poker $1 million buy-in “Big One For One Drop.”

The young poker pro, who specializes in online heads-up sit-n-gos and got his big break in the game by talking trash and calling out a pro’s hands in an online chat box, topped a field of 42 players in the seven-figure buy-in event to earn the second largest payout awarded in the history of tournament poker: $15,306,668.

This historic win came roughly two months after the young pro topped another elite high-stakes field in the European Poker Tour Grand Final €100,000 super high roller for another $2.1 million. Then Colman took third in a $100,000 super high roller at Aria after his One-Drop win for another $796,821 payday. The magnitude of his successes this year is such that his semifinal showing in the 2014 WSOP $10,000 heads-up event, good for an additional $111,942 cash, seems like a footnote despite being quite an accomplishment in its own right.

Here is a look back at how Colman became the second ever “Big One For One Drop” champion and made a name for himself on the 2014 tournament trail.

Seven-Figure Showdown Begins

The second running of the “Big One For One Drop” was like the inaugural event from 2012 in many respects. The event once again featured an unbelievable buy-in of $1 million. Just as before, $111,111 from each buy-in was donated to the One Drop Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2007 by Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberté, which strives to ensure that clean water is accessible to all in rural areas around Latin America, West Africa, and Asia.

ESPN would once again be filming the action, with six hours of televised coverage, and of course, as in 2012, businessmen and the world’s top poker professionals such as Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and defending champion Antonio Esfandiari turned out hoping to walk away with a multi-million dollar score.

The 42-player turnout this year built a total prize pool of $37,333,338 with an additional $4,666,662 raised for the charity. Play began with 3 million in chips and blinds of 3,000–6,000. Hedge fund manager and 2012 third-place finisher David Einhorn was the first player eliminated from the event when he ran a set into the straight of Sam Trickett, who outlasted Einhorn by one spot to earn over $10 million as the runner-up two years ago.

Trickett continued to dominate day one action, busting the first-ever female participant in the Big One when his pocket kings won a back-and-forth heartbreaker against the A-K of Vanessa Selbst. Selbst flopped an ace but Trickett turned the case king to retake the lead and send the always dangerous Selbst to the rail. The British poker pro ended the day as the largest stack of the 31 remaining players, taking 13.4 million in chips into Day Two.

Day Two Ends Amidst Million Dollar Bubble

The second day of this exciting event turned out to be a grueling affair. Despite coming in as the overnight leader, Sam Trickett could not match his momentum from day one and was sent to the rail in 15th place when his pocket aces ran into the turned trip nines of Daniel Negreanu.

While Trickett was crashing, 2012 champ Antonio Esfandiari was on the rise. Two years after topping the inaugural field of 46 players and winning more than $18.3 million, Esfandiari looked poised, incredibly, to do it all over again. He took the chip lead early in the day and spent several levels near the top before eventually following Trickett to the rail when he lost a battle of the blinds with his A 5 from the big blind (BB) running into Tobias Reinkemeier’s A J. Esfandiari was eliminated in 10th place, setting up the final table of nine.

Although the remaining nine converged on the ESPN featured table, only the top eight would make the money. That meant that one of the nine would be eliminated on a $1.3 million money bubble, taking home nothing while the remaining eight would lock up at least a $300,000 profit and still be in the running for the first-place prize of more than $15 million.

Every effort was made to play until the bubble burst, but with tournament staff and television crews working well past their scheduled stop, play was finally halted at roughly 4:20 am, leaving the remaining nine to sweat out the prospect of bubbling this huge event overnight.

From Nine Players To Eight-Figures

The chip leader going into the final day was movie producer and poker enthusiast Rick Salomon. The son of a former executive vice president at Warner Bros., Salomon is well known for his relationships with Paris Hilton, Shannen Doherty, and Pamela Anderson, who filed for divorce from Salomon just days after this event ended.

Joining him were a number of high-stakes poker’s biggest names including Scott Seiver, Tobias Reinkemeier, Christoph Vogelsang, and Daniel Colman. There were also a few sharp, successful businessmen with a passion for poker at the table including Tom Hall, Cary Katz, and Paul Newey.

Katz, Seiver, Hall, Vogelsang and Newey all had less than 15 BBs and were in danger of being sent to the rail with nothing. Unfortunately for Tom Hall, he was the one eliminated on the $1.3 million money bubble in the first hand of the day when his pocket tens failed to win a race against Daniel Negreanu’s A Q. Once in the money, the eliminations piled up quickly. Within three-and-half hours, the field was narrowed from eight down to just two.

Daniel Colman took a slight lead into heads-up play with two-time Card Player Player of the Year winner and six-time WSOP gold bracelet champ Daniel Negreanu. The two battled for 46 hands, but Colman was clearly in his element and despite a few setbacks early in the showdown he was able to retake the lead and then stretch it.

By the time the final hand arose, Colman held just over a 5-to-1 chip advantage. With blinds of 800,000–1,600,000 with a 200,000 ante, Negreanu limped in from the button and Colman made it 4 million to go. Negreanu responded with an all-in shove for just under 21 million. Colman quickly called and flipped up the K Q. Negreanu was ahead with the A 4, but his lead was tenuous. His position became a lot stronger when the flop brought the A J 4 giving the Canadian pro two pair. Colman did have a gutshot-straight draw, however, which he promptly hit with the 10 on the turn. Negreanu was still drawing live, as another ace or four would give him a winning full house. The 7 on the river changed nothing, however, securing the pot for Colman and sending Negreanu to the rail as the runner-up with the largest score of his already incredible tournament career: $8,288,001. As a result, he surpassed Antonio Esfandiari as the leader on the all-time money list with $29,643,419 in tournament earnings.

An Undeniable Talent Who’s Not Interested In Promoting Poker

After beating one of the biggest names in the game to win more than $15.3 million, Colman declined to be questioned by the general press and only gave a short interview that was limited to discussing the charity to ESPN. He even seemed hesitant to pose for promotional photos, only doing so briefly after being encouraged by mentor Olivier Busquet. His post-game behavior was surprising to many and drew some criticism from media and fans while many others, including fellow pros, backed up his right to turn down interviews.

“Really he’s a class act, a good kid and I really like the way he plays,” said Negreanu after it was all over. The Canadian pro is one of poker’s most visible ambassadors and often is one of the most generous of the big names in the game when it comes to sharing his time with the media. Despite having a different approach, Negreanu fully supported Colman’s decision to steer clear of the post-tournament hype session.

“He plays poker. That’s his job and he’s here to work, and if [press interviews] are not something he wants to do, I respect it completely.”

In the days that followed Colman took to the Internet with a response to some of his critics. In a roughly 450-word post in an online forum he explained his reasoning for not wanting his image being used to promote poker:

“I’ve been fortunate enough to benefit financially from this game, but I have played it long enough to see the ugly side of this world. It is not a game where the pros are always happy and living a fulfilling life. To have a job where you are at the mercy of variance can be insanely stressful and can lead to a lot of unhealthy habits. I would never in a million years recommend for someone to try and make it as a poker pro.

I get it if someone wants to go and play poker on their own free will, but I don’t agree with gambling being advertised just like I don’t agree with cigarettes and alcohol being advertised. It bothers me that people care so much about poker’s well-being. As poker is a game that has such a net negative effect on the people playing it. Both financially and emotionally.”

It’s interesting that Colman would not endorse trying to climb the ranks in this game when how he went about doing just that is such a fascinating story. Despite not having elite-level live tournament results prior to 2014 Colman has been a highly successful professional for years, earning millions in profit as a heads-up sit-n-go specialist known as “mrGR33N13.” The turning point in the development of his professional career, as Colman told HUsng.com in a 2012 interview, came back in 2007.

Colman was sweating online sit-n-go legend Olivier Busquet playing online and was often able to correctly put Busquet on specific hands, typing his reads into the chat box as he watched “livb112” battle it out.

Busquet, who is one of the more respected names when it comes to that particular poker format, was impressed by just how often the trash-talking railbird was correct in his reads and looked into Colman’s results. Busquet eventually reached out to him, becoming somewhat of a mentor to the young aspiring pro, coaching and staking him.

That relationship, combined with Colman’s talent for the game, lead to great success in the following years. In 2013 Colman became the first hyper-turbo player in online history to win more than $1 million (discounting rakeback) in a calendar year, a feat he achieved in only nine months. Now the 23-year-old pro has written his name in the history books yet again, winning two of the biggest high-stakes poker tournaments in the history of the game. ♠

$1 Million Big One For One Drop Final Results

Place Player Winnings
1 Daniel Colman $15,306,668
2 Daniel Negreanu $8,288,001
3 Christoph Vogelsang $4,480,001
4 Rick Salomon $2,800,000
5 Tobias Reinkemeier $2,053,334
6 Scott Seiver $1,680,000
7 Paul Newey $1,418,667
8 Cary Katz $1,306,607