The salubrious surroundings of the Casino Monte Carlo resounded to the sounds of very expensive poker chips and a special Cirque du Soleil show Friday as the $1 million buy-in, invitation only (and no pro players) Big One for One Drop kicked off, attended by the local royalty, Prince Albert of Monaco.
The 26 well-heeled players who jetted in for the extravaganza were in many cases attended by some of the biggest names in poker, hired as coaches for the occasion and flown to Monte Carlo, among them Andrew Robl, Scott Seiver, Jean-Robert Bellande, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree, ElkY, Daniel Cates and Tom Marchese.
Following a sumptuous lunch, the players took their seats, each with 5,000,000 in chips and blinds at 6,000/12,000.
High profile names around the tables included organiser Guy Laliberte, who busted and bought back into the game, doubling his personal million dollar investment. Matchbook betting platform CEO Andrew Pantling followed suit after being eliminated early on, laying down another million to continue.
Other well known “amateur” players included hedge fund manager David Einhorn, financier Bobby Baldwin, Dan Shak, Paul Newey, Talal Shakerchi, Haralabos Voulgaris, Rick Saloman, Paul Phua, Mark Teltscher, Anatoly Gurtovoy, Jason Strasser and Elton Tsang.
When the chips were bagged Friday night there had been several eliminations, and US entrepreneur and investor Alfred Decarolis was in the lead with 13,825,000 in chips, chased by Dan Shak, with the lowest chip counts held by Tony Bloom and Zuo Wang.
Play resumes today (Saturday).