It is already a well-known fact that the WPT series is pushing the poker bar higher and higher this year, but the golden dot behind a successful year will be the upcoming WPT World Championship festival. In addition to the Main Event with the historically largest guarantee the poker world has ever seen, this holiday will also include the next edition of the million-dollar Big One for One Drop with an astronomical $1,000,000 buy-in.
The fifth edition of the million-dollar tournament will come five years after the last one, in which Justin Bonomo won for $10 million. The previous editions produced 27, 28, 42 and 48 entries, which means that the organizers are closely monitoring the number of entries with the aim of breaking the magic threshold of 50 entries. We will find out in a month whether it will be successful (the tournament starts on December 18), but today we can at least look at the numbers that we already know for sure.
Thirteen brave
The first wave of applicants revealed exactly 6 names, including Rick Salomon - the only player who has played all four previous events so far. Less than a month before the start of the tournament, 13 daredevils who are willing to invest an astronomical buy-in are officially confirmed. In addition to world professionals such as Dan "Jungleman" Cates, Nick Petrangelo and Chris Brewer, Aleksejs Ponakovs, Artur Martirosyan, regular high stakes shark Orpen Kicasikoglu and Indian entrepreneur and recent WSOP bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna (with whom we they also brought you an exclusive interview).
Complete list of confirmed participants:
- Phil Ivey,
- Chris Brewer
- Talal Shakerchi
- Orpen Kisacikoglu
- Jason Koon
- Dan Cates
- Nick Petrangelo
- Santhosh Suvarna
- Aleksejs Ponakovs
- Mikita Badziakouski
- Rick Salomon
- Artur Martirosian
- David Einhorn
Many questions
The ten-time record holder of the Triton series, Jason Koon, was the last to confirm his participation, who would certainly follow up on the successes of the three-pronged series with such a success. In addition to the names mentioned above, there are also 6 other people interested in the game who have already started selling shares for this tournament, but their participation is not yet 100%. Among those names are Dan Smith, Alex Foxen, Mike Setera, Ethan Yau, Fedor Holz and Mario Mosbock.
The Big One for One Drop will take place during the WPT at the Wynn casino on the date from 18.12. until 20.12.2023. 6 percent of the buy-in goes to the One Drop Foundation, which provides clean water in difficult areas. What do you think, will there be enough brave people to possibly break the record?
Source: WPT, Flickr, PokerStrategy, HighStakesDB, Twitter (X)
