The Big One, and Other WSOP Bombshells

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 03 June 2011 / Leave a Comment

A special platinum bracelet will be awarded the one who wins the tournament, which they are calling “The Big One.” An appropriate name, I suppose, though with a million-dollar buy-in it almost seems like an understatement.

It has been a wild first week at the World Series of Poker. Heck, it's only been half a week, really, but the number and magnitude of the stories have been so big it has seemed longer. And in fact, many of those stories have had little to do with the actual action at the tables from the first five bracelet events that have gotten underway thus far.

The WSOP officially kicked off on Tuesday, the first hands being dealt amid lingering uncertainty regarding "Black Friday" fallout, most particularly the continued failure of Full Tilt Poker to allow U.S. players to cash out their balances. By the early evening of Day 1 came the jaw-dropping news that WSOP superstar and Team Full Tilt leader Phil Ivey not only was not going to play in any events this summer, but was suing Tiltware (the original software provider for Full Tilt Poker)! (See Matthew Pitt's report here.)

Soon thereafter came an intense altercation between 2010 WSOPE Main Event winner James Bord and Team Full Tilter John Juanda (who won the WSOPE ME in 2008) while the $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship (Event No. 2) played out on Tuesday evening. The verbal confrontation was thought by many at the time to be related to the FTP issue and many players' frustration that Team Full Tilt pros continue to play events while their money remains inaccessible on the site. However, later reports suggested the disagreement might have stemmed from other factors.

On Wednesday came further drama. The precise nature of Ivey's suit against Tiltware was made public, outlining his claim that FTP was in breach of contract for having operated its site illegally (as indicated by the April 15th indictment and civil complaint charging bank fraud, money laundering, and UIGEA violations) and for having failed to segregate funds to allow for U.S. players' cashouts (thus hurting Ivey's reputation and marketability). The suit describes Ivey's desire to be released from the "Non-Competition Covenant" of his contract with FTP and that he seeks $150 million in damages from the company he's represented since 2004.

Later in the day Tiltware fired back a bitter response calling Ivey's lawsuit "meritless," "frivolous," and "self-serving," and claiming that Ivey in fact owed the company "a large sum of money." Meanwhile, many took note of which Full Tilt pros had shown up to play events and which had not, and who among them wore FTP patches and who were not.

On Thursday came still more non-bracelet event news, with those WSOP "Grudge Match" rematches of classic Main Event heads-up battles capturing a lot of attention. (Again, see Matthew Pitt's report on how those went yesterday.) And more arguments among players erupted during the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event (No. 3), mostly involving the often-controversial Men "the Master" Nguyen.

One other story from Thursday further directed our attention away from the actual poker being played. The WSOP had made known a big announcement was coming later in the day, though hadn't provided details. Some industry insiders had gotten early word, however, including ESPN Poker Club's Andrew Feldman.

"The @WSOP announcement today will be huuuuuuge news," tweeted Feldman sometime before the press conference took place. Indeed, given all of the drama that had already happened over the last few days, it seemed appropriate for Feldman to add some extra "u"'s there in order to increase the chance of making an impression.

The announcement came late in the afternoon that next year, at the 2012 WSOP, there will be staged a $1,000,000 buy-in event. That's right. A million clams, an amount that is 20 times the previous largest buy-in for a WSOP bracelet event ($50,000). And 15 players have already said they plan to play in the event, among them Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Tony G, Phil Ruffin, Bobby Baldwin, and Guy Laliberte.

A special platinum bracelet will be awarded the one who wins the tournament, which they are calling "The Big One." An appropriate name, I suppose, though with a million-dollar buy-in it almost seems like an understatement.

Of note, a significant portion of the entry fees for the "The Big One" will be going to the One Drop charity, an organization established by Cirque du Soleil founder Laliberte to provide needed water to impoverished Third World countries. For each $1 million entry, $110,111 will go to One Drop with the remaining $889,889 going into the prize pool. Also, the payout structure will be such that the top 20% of finishers will cash (about twice the usual percentage). The three-day tournament is scheduled to start July 1, 2012.

Not long ago there appeared a poker-themed murder mystery by John Vorhaus titled Under the Gun. It's a decent page-turner, incorporating a lot of references to the contemporary tournament poker scene into its plot. It also includes quite a bit of poker strategy talk, which isn't too surprising given that Vorhaus has also authored some poker strategy texts, including several in the Killer Poker series. He's also co-authored a new title with Annie Duke, Decide to Play Great Poker, just released this week.

I read and enjoyed Under the Gun when it was first published in the fall of 2008. In the novel, Vorhaus imagines a huge buy-in tournament around which he builds his plot and which serves as part of the story's climax. Called the "Poker Apocalypse," the event has a $100,000 buy-in.

At the time -- less than three years ago -- I remember thinking that having a tournament with such a large buy-in seemed like a decent enough idea for a fictional story, though perhaps a little far-fetched, maybe even stretching the bounds of plausibility for the story just a tad. At the time, there was the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the WSOP. And the Aussie Millions had staged its first $100K event in early 2007. But we'd yet to arrive at a point where such large buy-in events were commonplace, as is the case today.

I'll wonder if those who read Under the Gun today might also find Vorhaus' "Poker Apocalypse" a little unrealistic -- because the buy-in is so small!

Initial reaction to the news of The Big One has been positive, mostly thanks to the charity component of the event. "My feelings are mixed," continued Feldman in his tweet about the tournament. "But absolutely crazy stuff."

It does seem a bit upside-down to have an event with a buy-in so large -- isn't the thrill of these tournaments supposed to be the chance to win a lot while risking a little? Like Feldman, I, too, have mixed feelings about The Big One, though am as intrigued as anyone else to see how it plays out.

Funny to think, though, how among all of the stories that have already emerged during these first few days of the 2011 WSOP, The Big One isn't necessarily the big one!