23 Entrants Confirmed for WSOP Big One Event

Among other players, title holder Antonio Esfandiari, Phily Ivey, Phil Galfond, Jason Mercier and Sam Trickett will all enter the WSOP Big One for One Drop event to compete for the $20 million first prize.

Antonio Esfandiari

Despite the fact that there is still over three months to go until the kick-off of the WSOP $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop tournament, seats are beginning to get occupied. The cap for the event is 56 and almost half of that, 23 places have already been taken.

To date, the following players have confirmed their participation:

1st Antonio Esfandiari
2nd Guy Laliberté
3rd Bobby Baldwin
4th David Einhorn
5th Phil Galfond
6th Philipp Gruissem
7th Phil Ivey
8th Jason Mercier
9th Paul Newey
10th Bill Perkins
11th Vivek Rajkumar
12th Brian Rast
13th Andrew Robl
14th Erik Seidel
15th Brandon Steven
16th Sam Trickett
17th Noah Schwartz
18th anonymous businessperson
19th anonymous businessperson
20th anonymous businessperson
21st Aria Resort satellite winner
22nd Bellagio Resort satellite winner
23rd World Series of Poker satellite winner

All 17 entrants who have disclosed their names participated in the first instalment of the Big One series in 2012, which is a good indicator of the success of the event. Two years ago, the field cap was 48 and the tournament was sold out. In 2014, an additional eight-handed table is introduced, increasing the cap to 56.

In 2012, tournament winner Antonio Esfandiari booked the largest live multi-table tournament score ever, $18,346,673. If the event is sold out this year as well, the future winner will be over $20 million richer.

Of course, Esfandiari is there to remain the record holder:

"I can’t wait to defend my title. That event was life-changing, but so was my trip to El Salvador after it with the One Drop organization to see first hand what a difference the money raised from this event can do for those in dire need of help," he stated.

The charity event supports Cirque Du Soleil owner Guy Laliberté’sOne Drop foundation with 11.11% of the total income from the buy-ins.