Sign Up For Card Player's Newsletter And Free Bi-Monthly Online Magazine

Jean-Robert Bellande Just Paid $1 Million In Cash To Enter World Series Of Poker 'One Drop' Tournament

Poker Veteran Finds The Cash To Play

Print-icon
 

Las Vegas poker regular Jean-Robert Bellande has accumulated the $1 million required to buy into the “One Drop” tournament this summer at the World Series of Poker. On Monday, Bellande Tweeted a photo of himself at the cage handing over the bricks of cash.

Bellande, who actually prides himself on being “broke,” presumably found investors, or a backer, for the tournament. It’s unclear how much he has of himself. In other words, we don’t know how much he’d pocket if he actually took down the tournament in July.

In 2012, poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, who also had investors, won $18.3 million after beating a field of 48 in the One Drop $1 million buy-in.

The 2014 running is likely going to have a larger field size and thus award even more to first place. The event is capped at 56 players, and if it reaches that total more than $20 million would likely go to the winner—the largest sum in the history of open buy-in tournament poker.

In March, it was revealed that more than 20 people had already confirmed that they would be playing in the tournament. Some of the game’s best have already signaled their participation.

Bellande is a regular at the high-stakes cash games at Aria.

The tournament is called One Drop because part of the buy-in goes to a charity with the same name. The charity was founded by billionaire Guy Laliberté.