WSOP Director Ty Stewart Confirms Big One For One Drop Will Take Place At 2018 WSOP

Right before the €111,111 High Roller for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em event got underway at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) on November 4 at the Kings Casino in the Czech Republic, WSOP’s Executive Director Ty Stewart made a major announcement in connection with the 2018 WSOP scheduled to take place in Las Vegas in the summer.
Stewart stated that the popular Big One for One Drop high stakes event will take place at the 2018 WSOP from July 15-17. WSOP’s partnership with the One Drop foundation commenced with the Big One for One Drop way back in 2012.
The Big One for One Drop high stakes event will be returning to Las Vegas after a hiatus of four years for its fourth edition. There will be a cap set on the number of participants for the event which is fixed at 48 players. As customary, the WSOP has decided to waive the buy-in fee and donate the same to the One Drop Foundation.
WSOP – One Drop Partnership
The One Drop Foundation and the WSOP entered into a partnership in 2012 and together they have been successful in raising over $20 million in charity donations. One Drop was a venture started by Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil’s and the foundation has a mission to provide sustainable safe water accessibility to needy communities across the globe. The Big One for One Drop event accounts for approximately $14 million of the total contribution made so far by the WSOP and the 2018 edition will continue to generate significant funds for the charity.
When the WSOP came up with the idea of putting together an event which had a $1 million buy-in, there were many in the poker community who felt that the WSOP had lost the plot because there would be very few poker players who would be interesting in putting up that kind of money. Stewart also said when the WSOPE announced that it would be staging the One Drop event at the Kings Casino in November; skeptics once again said that it would be hard to put together a €10 million event in Rozvadov.
However the WSOP has proven over the years that its Big One for One Drop, Little One for One Drop and High Roller for One Drop events have not only turned out to be immensely successful with over 11,000 player registrations which has helped the WSOP raise $20 million in donations. The Big One For One Drop event has attracted some of the top poker players in the world, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who wanted to donate generously to charity and also have a competitive game of high stakes poker.
Big One For One Drop – History
The first two editions of the Big One for One Drop were held in 2012 and 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada while the third edition took place in Monaco in 2016. The three editions saw a total of 86 player registrations and the WSOP reports that 22 of these players took part in two or more editions.
Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari ended up winning the very first edition of the Big One for One Drop and took home a whopping $18,346,673 in prize money while the 2014 edition was won by the young Daniel Colman who won $15,306,668 in prize money. The 2016 event which took place in Monaco was won by Chinese Canadian poker pro Elton Tsang who took home €11,111,111 in prize money.
2018 Big One For One Drop – Registration
King’s Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik booked himself a seat at the One Drop No-Limit Hold’em but since the demand for seats was very high, he decided to give up his place and donate his buy-in to the One Drop foundation. When Stewart made the announcement of the Big One for One Drop returning in 2018, Tsoukernik became the first player to register for the event.
The WSOP has started accepting registrations for the event and players who are interested to book a seat must be willing to make a $50,000 deposit before July 1, 2018. The WSOP has confirmed that seats to the Big One For One drop event will be allotted on a first come first serve basis and that the $50,000 deposit will be non-refundable.