No, that is not a typo in the title! On Thursday the World Series of Poker announced it would be hosting a $1 million buy-in tournament where 11.11% of the prize-pool will be donated to One Drop, a charity created by Cirque de Soleil creator –and poker enthusiast—Guy Laliberte whose mission is to provide access to clean water worldwide.

The tournament is being dubbed THE BIG ONE for ONE DROP and will take place during next year’s WSOP from July 1-3. The tournament already has nine confirmed entrants. The WSOP announced that if the tournament reaches 22 entrants it will become an official bracelet event. The tournament is capped at 48 players, which would produce a $40 million prize-pool for the players, with about $17 million going to the winner!

The participants that have agreed to participate include:

* Guy Laliberte, president of the board of directors, ONE DROP and founder of Cirque du Soleil

* Andy Beal, the Texas Billionaire who took on “The Corporation”

* Phil Ruffin, Owner of Treasure Island in Las Vegas

* Bobby Baldwin, CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts and 1978 WSOP Main Event Champion

* Doyle Brunson

* Patrik Antonius

* Gus Hansen

* Antanas “Tony G” Guoga

The idea of a $1 million buy-in tournament seems almost ludicrous, but with the charitable angle we could see several more high-profile businessmen take part as well as some of the Macau big-name players. If this happens my guess is we will also see some poker players who manage to sell off some pieces of themselves take part as well, since the game would become juicier, and more +EV, with each amateur entry.

Tags: Andy Beal, Antanas, Businessmen, Cirque De Soleil, Cirque Du Soleil, Doyle Brunson, Gus, Gus Hansen, Guy Laliberte, main event, MGM Mirage, Mgm Mirage Resorts, patrik antonius, Phil Ruffin, poker players, Prize Pool, Texas Billionaire, Treasure Island, World Series of Poker, Wsop Main Event Champion

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 11:38 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.