Home / Poker News July 2012 / Antonio Esfandiari Wins Big One for One Drop
Antonio Esfandiari Wins Big One for One Drop
Posted by: Randy Williams - Thu, 2012-07-05 07:57
Antonio Esfandiari wrote poker history on Tuesday: the $18 million he picked up for winning the Big One for One Drop qualified as not only the biggest single prize awarded by a poker tournament ever, it also became the biggest single prize ever awarded in sports.
The final day of the event saw 8 players return to play down to a winner. Esfandiari had the chip lead and Sam Trickett was right behind him in second. Guy Laliberte, the main organizer of the event, Phil Hellmuth and Brian Rast were there as well. Being the skilled pro that he is, Esfandiari took full advantage of the control that his massive stack lent him. He only had one slip-up at the final table and even that one was but a minor one: he doubled up David Einhorn, who picked up pocket rockets against his pocket kings.
Richard Yong was one of the short-stacks coming into the final stretch and as such, he was under quite a bit of pressure to get something going fast. He was never able to gather any momentum though: he faded away at the hands of Brian Rast, picking up $1.2 million for his 8th place effort.
After the dinner break, Bobby Baldwin bowed out too, in 7th place, grabbing a $1.4 million reward.
Brian Rast and Guy Laliberte followed Baldwin to the rail. Phil Hellmuth made it all the way to 4th place, picking up a more then decent reward of $2.6 million. David Einhorn’s elimination in 3rd place set up the heads-up stage of the
poker tournament between Esfandiari and Trickett. By the time the heads-up bout commenced, Esfandiari had built a 3-1 chip lead over his opponent. Eventually, that advantage proved instrumental in the final outcome of the event. The last hand of the tournament saw Esfandiari’s 7,5o catch trip fives on the flop against Trickett’s Qd, 6d which only managed a 4-card flush. Esfandiari picked up $18,346,673, while Trickett pocketed $10,112,001.
