14 October 2016 (Monaco) – The Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza began Friday with the biggest buy-in tournament in poker history – the €1,000,000 Big One for One Drop with unlimited re-entry. As with all One Drop events, a portion of each buy-in goes to the Big One charity to support their clean water projects throughout the world. Today, the Big One and one side event generated €3,116,708 for the charity.
Today’s events saw two stars rise in the famous Casino de Monte Carlo: Alfred Decarolis (pictured right) finished Day 1 of the Big One as the chip leader, and Steven Uccio won the first side event.
€1,000,000 Big One for One Drop
The first day of the biggest live poker tournament in history started with 22 entrants. After a few players registered late, the event had grown to 25 players. The field included stars from outside the poker world, like Canadian pop star Garou (Pierre Garand) and Hollywood celeb Rick Salomon, who finished third in the $1 million Big One for One Drop in Las Vegas two years ago. They were joined by a host of high-roller regulars – David Einhorn, Paul Newey, Talal Shakerchi, Dan Shak, Brandon Steven, Cary Katz, and Paul Phua. The field also attracted some former poker champions who have since moved into the business world, like Mark Teltscher and 1978 WSOP Main Event champion Bobby Baldwin.
Alfred Decarolis was the man to beat on Day 1. He was near the top of the leaderboard virtually all day. And soon after dinner break, he jumped past previous chip leader Anatoly Gurtovoy and never looked back. He finished the day with 13,825,000 in chips, well ahead of the pack. His closest competitor is Dan Shak with 10,735,000. No other player has over 10 million.
The first elimination was none other than the founder of One Drop, Guy Laliberté. He was left short-stacked after a hand against Patrick Madden, and was then eliminated when his ran into Bob Safai’s and failed to improve. He quickly rebought, bringing the total number of entries up to 26.
The next player to bust was Bobby Baldwin. He was left short-stacked heading into the second break. And soon after play resumed, his pocket nines ran into Alfred Decarolis’s pocket kings. Baldwin elected not to rebuy, leaving 24 players. Then in the following level, Tony Bloom took his seat as the 27th entry.
Shortly after dinner break, Andrew Pantling of Canada was eliminated. A little more than an hour later, he re-entered. That brought the total field size to 28, with 25 live players. Kamer Alyanakyan was eliminated just before the end of the night, leaving 24 players to bag up chips.
Late registration and re-entry remain open until the start of Day 2 on Saturday, so the field may yet grow larger. After registration closes, the official payouts will be announced.
Day 2 begins Saturday at noon. For more information about today’s proceedings, check out…
€10,000 No-Limit Hold’em
There was one side event today, the €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. It drew 8 runners: David Chesnoff, Dan Fleyshman, Carsten Girst, Jordan Lenoach, Pierre, Neuville, Alexander Timokhin, Steven Uccio, and Senh Man Ung.
The top two players finished in the money, and after about four hours, Steven Uccio emerged as the winner, earning €48,360. Jordan Lenoach finished runner up for €26,040.
Click here for official results.
Steven Uccio
Looking Ahead
Here’s the schedule for Saturday, October 15:
- Noon – €1,000,000 Big One for One Drop – Day 2
- 1:00 p.m. – €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
- 5:00 p.m. – €10,000 NLHE/PLO 6-Max
- 8:00 p.m. – €5,250 Satellite to Sunday’s €50,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Event