The World Series of Poker announced today that in 2012 they will be hosting the largest buy-in poker event ever, a $1 Million buy-in, No-Limit Hold’em tournament! It will take place with all tournament fees going to benefit the world initiative One Drop, which seeks to provide healthy water sources to people across the globe.
This massive $1 Million tournament, billed The Big One for One Drop, will be aired on ESPN and is planned as a three day event starting July 1st 2012. The winner will receive a special limited edition platinum bracelet unlike any bracelet ever given out before to a WSOP event champion.
The largest super high roller to date was the $250,000 buy in at this years Aussie Millions, which at the time was thought to be exorbitant. Now the WSOP has taken live tournaments to another level!
To date, 15 players have confirmed playing in next year’s $1 Million event. This includes Treasure Island Hotel owner Phil Ruffin, Cirque du Soleil founder and creative genius Guy Laliberte, MGM executive Bobby Baldwin, two time WSOP main event champion Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius. Already talks about satellites into this tournament are being discussed. Caesar’s Entertainment has announced that it will offer a satellite to win a seat in this event.
Another player rumored to be interested in the event is Texas oil billionaire Andy Beal. Beal is very passionate about the game of poker, and is famous in the poker world, for all by himself, taking on a group of the world’s best players at the highest stakes ever played. Those famous matches are documented in the popular book The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King.
It remains to be seen which other players around the globe will pony up the cash to buy-in into this massive tournament. Many of the world’s top players are expected to pool money, and split profits, in order to put one of their comrades in the event, who they feel would have an advantage against the billionaires. With an increase in popularity in China, and huge live games running in Macau, it wouldn’t be surprising to see entrants coming from the far east. This $1 Million tournament is intriguing for it has the potential to bring some rich players out of the wood work who want something more, a tournament where the buy-in means something special.
Whoever wins this $1 Million tournament will certainly be on the list of all-time poker tournament winners. Currently the highest all-time winning poker tournament player in the world is Erik Seidel with $15,945,000. Theoretically speaking, if enough players entered this event, someone could become the all-time highest winning tournament poker player ever by simply winning this one event. Stay with FlopTurnRiver.com for continued updates!