Yesterday, the Main Event of the exclusive One Drop Extravaganza tournament series kicked off in Monaco with a whopping €1 million buy-in. In the most expensive tournament in the world, 26 players entered and there were even two re-buys. After Day 1, 24 are left to play down to a final table of eight today.
From the huge 1 million buy-in go again 111.111 euros to the One Drop Foundation, founded by circus director, astronaut and poker player Guy Laliberte, which provides drinking water in poor countries.
Why poker pros are there after all?
The Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza is only for "poker amateurs, philanthropists and celebrities," according to the website.
Although the rich businessmen didn't really want to mess with pros, there were quite a few at the tables yesterday, including Talal Shakerchi, Dan Shak, Paul Newey, Andrew Pantling, Mark Teltscher and Jason Strasser.
The explanation for this is simple: Ultimately it is up to organizer Guy Laliberte. If he lets someone play, they get to play. It is that simple.
However, the number of players was somewhat behind the expectations of the organizers, in fact, two weeks ago they announced full that already 35 players were registered.
Who is well in the race?
Let's go on day 1 at 14:00 with 6.000/12.000 blinds and a gigantic starting stack of 5.000.000, real deep stack poker.
Chipleader after Day 1 is now Alfred Decarolis with nearly 14 million chips in the bag. Decarolis is a restaurant owner and film producer who played a $25k WSOP event in 2014 and finished third.
Behind it comes Dan Shak, an experienced poker pro and hedge fund manager with over 8 million tournament winnings in his lifetime.
Also in the foreground: Brandon Steven, Haralabos Voulgaris, Davis Einhorn and Elton Tsang.
Who paid double buy-in?
Guy Laliberte and Andrew Pantling each used the re-buy option, so they've each already invested 2 million euros on their bottom lines.
Bobby Baldwin, casino manager and CEO of Mirage Resorts, has also been kicked out, but has yet to decide on a re-buy. Until the start of today's day 2, you can buy your way back here.
Among the coaches watching the action were Vanessa Selbst, Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl, for whom the cash games on the sidelines of the Extravaganza should be especially rewarding.
Today we continue already at 12:00 with day 2 and tomorrow Sunday should be played from 12:00 the final table. On Monday, the Extravaganza High Roller Cashgame will run, with a minimum stake of 1 million euros.
Big One for One Drop Extravaganza – Chipcounts after Day 1
| 1 | Alfred Decarolis | 13,825,000 |
| 2 | Dan Shak | 10,735,000 |
| 3 | Brandon Steven | 8,850,000 |
| 4 | Haralabos Voulgaris | 8,765,000 |
| 5 | David Unicorn | 8,375,000 |
| 6 | Elton Tsang | 7,920,000 |
| 7 | Andrew Pantling | 7,600,000 |
| 8 | James Bord | 7,375,000 |
| 9 | Pau Phua | 6,455,000 |
| 10 | Sean Dempsey | 6,380,000 |
| 11 | Talal Shakerchi | 6,280,000 |
| 12 | Cary Katz | 6,220,000 |
| 13 | Jason Strasser | 5,585,000 |
| 14 | Bob Safai | 4,600,000 |
| 15 | Anatoly Gurtovoy | 4,475,000 |
| 16 | Pat Madden | 4,275,000 |
| 17 | Guy Laliberte | 4,000,000 |
| 18 | Mark Teltscher | 3,750,000 |
| 19 | Pierre Garand | 3,585,000 |
| 20 | Paul Newey | 2,805,000 |
| 21 | Yaqi Sun | 2,645,000 |
| 22 | Rick Solomon | 2,255,000 |
| 23 | Zuo Wang | 1,840,000 |
| 24 | Tony Bloom | 1,200,000 |