Big One for One Drop


The Big One for One Drop is a $1,000,000 buy-in No Limit Texas hold 'em tournament hosted at the World Series of Poker. Added in the 2012, it became the highest buy-in poker tournament in history as well as the largest single payout offered. The event is known for its charitable contributions as much as $111,111 or €111,111 of each player's buy in is donated to the One Drop Foundation, an international non-profit organization created by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, which focuses on water initiatives.

History

Canadian entrepreneur, Guy Laliberté, started the Big One for One Drop in 2012 as a No-Limit hold 'em event hosted at the World Series of Poker. He founded the nonprofit One Drop Foundation, which seeks unconditional access to safe drinking water in crisis areas. Buy-ins range from $111,111 for the high roller event to $1,000,000 for the Big One or €1,000,000 for the spin off Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza event hosted in Europe. 3.5% of the prize pool benefits the One Drop Foundation. The event was hosted at the WSOP in 2014. A smaller event known as the "High Roller for One Drop" hosted in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 has a buy in of $111,111 with $11,111 going toward charity.
Antonio Esfandiari won the first event defeating Sam Trickett heads-up and earned $18,346,673. In 2013, the following year, the WSOP hosted the lower buy-in the $111,111 High Roller event was won by Anthony Gregg. Gregg defeated Chris Klodnicki heads up and earned $4,830,619.
In 2014, the $1,000,000 Big One returned. The final table consisted of professional players such as Dan Colman, Daniel Negreanu, Christoph Vogelsang, Tobias Reinkemeier and Scott Seiver as well as recreational players Paul Newey, Cary Katz and Rick Salomon. Colman won the tournament defeating Negreanu heads up and earned $15,306,668.
From 2015 to 2017, One Drop only offered the lower $111,111 High Roller event at the WSOP with Jonathan Duhamel, Fedor Holz and Doug Polk winning each event respectively.
In October 2016, the Big One for One Drop Extravaganza returned at a new venue held in Monte Carlo, the buy-in was €1,000,000 and opened only to recreational players. Canadian Chinese poker player, Elton Tsang won the event for €11,111,111 after defeating Anatoly Gurtovoy of Russia heads up.
In November 2017, it was announced that the $1,000,000 buy-in event would return to the 2018 World Series of Poker. 27 players entered for a total prizepool of $24,840,000 and $80,000 from each buy-in donated to the One Drop foundation for a total of $2,160,000.

Results

* Note that this event did not award a bracelet to the winner.

2012 Big One for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Antonio Esfandiari$18,346,673
2nd Sam Trickett$10,112,001
3rd David Einhorn$4,352,000
4th Phil Hellmuth$2,645,333
5th Guy Laliberté$1,834,666
6th Brian Rast$1,621,333
7th Bobby Baldwin$1,408,000
8th Richard Yong$1,237,333

2013 High Roller for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Anthony Gregg$4,830,619
2nd Chris Klodnicki$2,985,495
3rd Bill Perkins$1,965,163
4th Antonio Esfandiari$1,433,438
5th Richard Fullerton$1,066,491
6th Martin Jacobson$807,427
7th Brandon Steven$621,180
8th Nick Schulman$485,029

2014 Big One for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Dan Colman$15,306,668
2nd Daniel Negreanu$8,288,001
3rd Christoph Vogelsang$4,480,001
4th Rick Salomon$2,800,000
5th Tobias Reinkemeier$2,053,334
6th Scott Seiver$1,680,000
7th Paul Newey$1,418,667
8th Cary Katz$1,306,667

2015 High Roller for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Jonathan Duhamel$3,989,985
2nd Bill Klein$2,465,522
3rd Dan Colman$1,544,121
4th Ben Sulsky$1,118,049
5th Dan Perper$873,805
6th Phil Hellmuth$696,821
7th Anthony Zinno$565,864
8th Sergey Lebedev$466,970

2016 High Roller for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Fedor Holz$4,981,775
2nd Dan Smith$3,078,974
3rd Koray Aldemir$2,154,265
4th Jack Salter$1,536,666
5th Brian Green$1,117,923
6th Joe McKeehen$829,792
7th Nick Petrangelo$628,679
8th Niall Farrell$486,383

2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza

PlaceNamePrizePrize in EUR
1st Elton Tsang$12,248,912€11,111,111
2nd Anatoly Gurtovy$5,983,597€5,427,781
3rd Rick Salomon$3,307,206€3,000,000
4th James Bord$2,315,044€2,100,000
5th Cary Katz$1,929,203€1,750,000
6th Andrew Pantling$1,653,603€1,500,000

2017 High Roller for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Doug Polk$3,686,865
2nd Bertrand Grospellier$2,278,657
3rd Dario Sammartino$1,608,295
4th Haralabos Voulgaris$1,158,883
5th Chris Moore$852,885
6th Martin Jacobson$641,382
7th Rainer Kempe$493,089
8th Andrew Robl$387,732

2018 Big One for One Drop

PlaceNamePrize
1st Justin Bonomo$10,000,000
2nd Fedor Holz$6,000,000
3rd Dan Smith$4,000,000
4th Rick Salomon$2,840,000
5th Byron Kaverman$2,000,000