Home / Poker News December 2012 / The Best Poker Stories of 2012 – The Big One for One Drop
The Best Poker Stories of 2012 – The Big One for One Drop
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2012-12-30 05:38
The history of the
WSOP is basically a year-to-year account of how prize-pools grew spurred on by increased player participation on one hand and no doubt, inflation on the other. 1991 was the first year when a 7-figure prize was won at the WSOP. Brad Daugherty won the Main Event back then, earning a cool million for his efforts. 1991 was thus forever etched into the poker history books. 2012 has entered poker history in a rather similar manner, although this time, riding the trend of ever increasing prize-pools and buy-ins, its claim to fame was the first ever poker tournament to feature a buy-in of $1 million.
The Big One for One Drop event of the
2012 WSOP carried quite a few risks for organizers. Coughing up a cool million as a
poker tournament buy-in is not something many people can even dream of, regardless of how successful they are at the green felt, so the first challenge was to get a large-enough starting field together to lend the event legitimacy. Coupling the initiative with the WSOP brand was obviously the right way to go about it, and making it a 2012 WSOP side event was indeed the winning move.
The goal was set to 22 participants, but by April, that number had been surpassed as more and more poker pros confirmed their participation. Eventually, the cap set to 48 players was reached as well. In fact, several “name” competitors who had confirmed participation before were left out in the cold.
The three-day event was eventually won by Antonio Esfandiari, who defeated Sam Trickett heads-up. Esfandiari took down a prize of $18.34 million. Phil Hellmuth finished 3rd. The event was such a success that the WSOP has decided to bring it back in 2014.
