Antonio Esfandiari Earns Mega Payday with WSOP Event #55 Win

The $1 million Big One for One Drop was a charity poker tournament that took place during the 2012 World Series of Poker. The tournament was #55 on the schedule and had a large buy-in of $1 million. The best poker players in the industry signed up to compete in the event and a total of 48 players were able to come up with the $1 million buy-in to compete. In the end, it was poker pro Antonio Esfandiari who earned the title win and just over $18 million in prize money!

Esfandiari is known as the Magician in the poker world and he definitely did a little magic, earning the first place win in the charity poker tournament. When final table play began, Esfandiari was the chip leader, followed closely by Sam Trickett. During final table play, the two players would fight back and forth for the chip lead while everyone else tried to have enough chips to hold on in the tournament.

It would take a little over twenty hands before the eliminations would begin and players would be eliminated swiftly. Players would drop left and right but each player eliminated from the final table would earn at last $1 million+.

In the end it was Esfandiari and Trickett. The two stayed together for the majority of final table play and when heads up play began, Esfandiari would hold a 2.5 to 1 chip lead. Trickett would look like he was going to come back but then Esfandiari made trip nines and then pulled ahead even more.

The final hand would take place on the 85th hand of the table. Esfandiari would have the button and he would raise 1.8 million. Trickett would call and the flop would fall J-5-5. Trickett would check and Esfandiari would bet the amount unknown. Trickett would come back with a check-raise of 5.4 million and Esfandiari would reraise to 10 million. Trickett would think for a minute and then reraise to 15 million.

Esfandiari would take this time to raise all in and Trickett would call. Trickett showed Q-6 of diamonds for a flush draw. Esfandiari showed 7-5 so he held trip fives and the lead. The turn of a 3 was no good for Trickett and a 2 of hearts on the river was the end of Trickett’s tournament play. He was out in second, giving Esfandiari the win and the largest poker pot ever!

Final Results:

Antonio Esfandiari (Iran) – $18,346,673

Sam Trickett (UK) – $10,112,001

David Einhorn (USA) – $4,352,000

Phil Hellmuth (USA) – $2,645,333

Guy Laliberté (Canada) – $1,834,666

Brian Rast (USA) – $1,621,333

Bobby Baldwin (USA) – $1,408,000

Richard Yong (Malaysia) – $1,237,333

Mike Sexton (USA) – $1,109,333

 

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