WIN YOUR SEAT INTO THE WSOP $1MM BUY-IN EVENT
BIG ONE FOR ONE DROP GUARANTEED SATELLITE PROGRAM TO CULMINATE WITH $25K MEGA SATELLITE JUNE 30 AT RIO

15+ LOCATIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY PLAN TO OFFER SATELLITES INTO JUNE 30 EVENT; MORE TO BE ADDED

Las Vegas, April 4 , 2012 – It will be a historic event, as legends of poker, businessmen and philanthropists come together to be immortalized for playing in the highest stakes card game of all time. 

But, poker players who don’t have $1 million to enter The Big One for One Drop on July 1-3, 2012 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino still have an option to get into the field and win the projected eight-figure first prize.  In fact, dreamers from all over the world will have a chance to get into the elite field for as little as $65!

Numerous officially-licensed gaming properties around the United States have committed to host live step-satellite poker tournaments, each of which will culminate with a guaranteed seat into a $25,300 buy-in mega satellite at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on June 30, 2012 at 1:00 PM.  The Rio’s culminating satellite will feature a guaranteed $1,000,000 seat into the Big One for One Drop regardless of the number of entries. One seat will be created for every 40 entries in the June 30 satellite.

The program’s first opportunity occurs on Thursday, April 5 at 6:00 pm at the famed Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California.  After a month-long promotion where some won free seats into this satellite and others won their way in via a $150 step satellite, any interested player can directly buy-in to the April 5 event for $500 and walk away with a seat into the $25,300 June 30 Mega Satellite.  Included in each seat giveaway is airfare and accommodations to Las Vegas for the mega satellite.

Through June, similar step tournaments will be held around the country, each culminating in a mega satellite with a $25,300 guaranteed seat to the June 30th event, with airfare and hotel provided by Caesars Interactive Entertainment.  To date, these 14 properties have confirmed their intentions to stage a Big One qualifying event.
 
The Bicycle Casino (Los Angeles) Thursday, April 5, 2012
Horseshoe Bossier City (Louisiana) Sunday, June 10, 2012
Horseshoe Southern Indiana Sunday, May 27, 2012
Horseshoe Hammond (Chicago area) Saturday, May 26, 2012
Choctaw Durant (Dallas/Oklahoma) Sunday, May 18-20, 2012
Caesars Palace (Las Vegas) Sunday, May 20, 2012
Horseshoe Tunica (Mississippi) Sunday, June 10, 2012
Palm Beach Kennel Club (Florida) Saturday, June 9, 2012
Council Bluffs (Iowa/Nebraska) Sunday, May 27, 2012
Harrah's St Louis Sunday, May 20, 2012
Harrah's Chester (Philadelphia) Saturday, May 19, 2012
Harrah's New Orleans Saturday, May 19, 2012
The Lodge Casino (Colorado) Sunday, June 3, 2012
Canterbury Park (Minnesota) Sunday, May 13, 2012

We encourage you to visit/contact the properties listed above, as the date for each event is the culminating tournament.  Several step satellite tournaments are beginning soon for as little as $65, so visiting your local poker room in the near future can put you one step closer to playing in the Big One for One Drop!

The schedule and specifics on buy-in amounts will be announced locally with updates on  http://www.lnmandiya.com/2012/thebigone/satellites. 

Players can also follow www.twitter.com/WSOP or www.Facebook.com/WorldSeriesofPoker to receive updates on the qualifiers.

Casinos and licensed poker operators interested in holding a guaranteed seat tournament to the Big One for One Drop should contact Daniel Vogel, World Series of Poker event marketing manager at [email protected]

Canadian Poker players have a similar opportunity to win their way in for a fraction of the buy-in.  On May 19 and 20, 2012, Loto-Québec will present the Grand Loto-Québec Poker Tournament at the Casino du Lac-Leamy with a $1,000,000 guaranteed seat.  Players can buy-in directly, or earn entries through scratch-off lottery tickets or step satellites at casinos in Quebec.  Information is available at  https://tournoipokerlotoquebec.com/

The Big One for One Drop is the creation of ONE DROP Chair and Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberté who approached WSOP CEO Mitch Garber earlier this year with an idea take poker’s generous charitable nature and combine it with the WSOP’s poker expertise and global reach to create an unprecedented poker tournament that also raises awareness and funds for a dire worldwide cause – access to water.

ESPN will televise this event.  A specially-designed WSOP platinum bracelet will be awarded to the victor, along with what is expected to be an eight-figure first place prize.

The tournament, to be played as No-Limit Hold’em, is expected to pay out a record 20% of the field – double the typical poker tournament payout structure.

Final funds are expected to be due 14 days prior to the event commencing. Subject to the rules of the tournament, anyone age 21 or older is eligible as long as they have the $1 million entry fee.

The tournament will bring together individuals in an unusual way for the cause of water for all.  The BIG ONE for ONE DROP is an unprecedented effort to raise awareness of water-related issues amongst the poker community and to raise funds to allow ONE DROP to continue to deliver on its important mandate. Funds will be directed to ONE DROP projects around the world, where the team is hard at work dealing with the local water crisis.   ONE DROP is a non-governmental organization aiming to fight poverty worldwide by supporting access to water and raising each and every one’s awareness of water-related issues.


About ONE DROP
 ONE DROP—an initiative of Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil—is a non-governmental organization established in Montreal, Canada and active worldwide. ONE DROP’s mission is to fight poverty by supporting access to water and raising each and every one’s awareness of water-related issues through its distinctive approach based on social arts and popular education. In the U.S., ONE DROP is a public charity that undertakes innovative activities in which water plays a central role as a creative force to generate positive, sustainable change worldwide. ONE DROP continues to reach out to the world to realize its dream of safe water for all, today and tomorrow. To learn more about ONE DROP, visit ONEDROP.org.

About the World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world awarding millions of dollars in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport’s top prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest running tournament in the world, dating back to 1970. In 2011, the event attracted 75,672 entrants from 105 different countries to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and awarded over $192 million in prize money.  To learn more about the World Series of Poker, visit WSOP.com