Monte Carlo is one of the most extravagant casinos in the world situated in one of the most exotic locations. Set in Monaco – on the French Riviera – it’s a lavish place that welcomes the wealthy and isn’t always attainable to the common man. That seems to be the theme of an upcoming poker tournament, which will have one of the biggest buy-ins in the history of the game.
The 2016 Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza will start on October 13 and run through to October 17 at the Casino De Monte Carlo and the main event will have a buy-in of 1,000,000 Euros. There will be nine tournaments held over the four days, but of course the spotlight is squarely focused on the Big One For One Drop, which features that record-setting buy-in.
The good news is that it’s all for a good cause. The proceeds of the event will go to the One Drop Foundation, an international non-profit organization which was created by Guy Laliberte, who is also the founder of Cirque du Soleil. He is an avid poker player himself, so when he thought about how to create an event to raise money for a cause, this was a natural fit. One Drop is devoted to using water as a way to improve living conditions around the world.
So what type of person can throw around a million euros for charity? A billionaire. 35 of them from around the world will get in on the action in this tournament to help the cause.
Taking a look at the calendar of events, The Big One For One Drop actually starts on Friday while the weekend kicks off on Thursday. There will be three tournaments that have lower buy-ins, including 10,000 Euros, 50,000 Euros and 250,000 Euros. Then there are two tournaments on the day of the Big One that have 10,000 Euro buy-ins, and then Saturday and Sunday there will be six tournaments between weekend days ranging from 5,150 Euros to 50,000 Euros. Monday, the final day of the event, has a High Roller Cash Game that has a buy-in of a million Euros as well, and then two more tournaments with buy-ins of 10,300 Euros and 100,000 Euros.
This isn’t the first time that One Drop has done this as they also held million-dollar buy-in tournaments with the World Series of Poker in 2012 and 2014. However, those had professional poker players at the table. This event will really just be rich businessmen and women, along with those involved in philanthropic organizations. The winner of the first tournament in 2012 was Antonio Esfandiari, who is a legend in the world of poker and he took home a ridiculous $18,346,673 – the largest cash prize in the history of poker. Dan Colman took second place and managed to collect $15,306,668.
The biggest winner will be the One Drop Foundation, which gets a good share of the money to be able to move forward. Not only that, One Drop also gets its name out there for those that might never have heard of them before and that marketing will encourage donations. What One Drop is working towards is incredible and it’s nice that the poker world is coming together to support it.