During a break of the $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up Championship, Guy Laliberte and Phil Ruffin, in partnership with Caesars Entertainment, announced that the 2012 WSOP will have a special, marquis event: a $1,000,000 buyin tournament.
This event, which will be a bracelet event in next year’s series, is by far the largest poker tournament to be held in a major casino, taking the title away from the $250,000 Super High Roller Event at this year’s Aussie Millions. However, other than the differences in the buyins, these tournaments have some very distinct differences.
The $1 million tournament will have a much deeper payout structure, paying out 20% of the field. Also, this tournament will take place over the course of three days. So far, 15 players have signed on to play this event, including nosebleed players Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Patrick Antonius, frequent Big Game competitors Daniel Negreanu and Johnny Chan, and the famous Texas billionaire, making his first trip to the WSOP, Andy Beal.
What is most special about this tournament is what happens to the tournament fees. Usually, a poker room will withhold 10% of the prizepool as a fee for the event. For this event, however, no fee will be taken for the casino. Instead, for each million, $111,111 will be taken out of the prize pool for the One Drop Charity Foundation. This foundation’s goal is to provide access to clean water and sanitation to everybody in the world. Laliberte, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, founded the organization in 2007 and has been working towards the goals of the organization since.
This tournament is bound to be the highlight of next year’s WSOP, and will be the buzz of much of this year’s series. It will be exciting to see how many players decide to play the event between now and then, who comes out of the woodwork, and who backs who for the tournament.