Martin Jacobson's the Man to Catch in the One Drop High Rollers
Registration for the One Drop High Rollers closed on Wednesday evening and when it did, there were 166 players in the field! These 166 high rollers created a prize pool of $17,891,148, which makes this tournament the richest-ever High Rollers event in the history of the game.
At last year's World Series of Poker, a special tournament took place called The Big One for One Drop. This exclusive event cost a staggering $1,000,000 to enter and raised millions for the One Drop charity.
The tournament has returned for the 2013 WSOP, but with an easier to swallow $111,111 buy-in, a huge sum of money that hasn't deterred plenty of the world's best poker players from competing.
Registration for the One Drop High Rollers closed on Wednesday evening and when it did, there were 166 players in the field! These 166 high rollers created a prize pool of $17,891,148, which makes this tournament the richest-ever High Rollers event in the history of the game.
Day 1 witnessed the 166 starters reduced to 108 over the course of 10 hour-long levels. Day 2 saw even more players hit the rail and there were only 26 remaining as Day 2 ended. Only the top 24 players are to be paid, meaning play finished just two spots from the money, something that angered those still in the tournament. The players called for a ruling by Jack Effel, the Vice President of the World Series of Poker, and he ruled that Day 2 would end after the scheduled 10th level.
When play did end, it was Martin Jacobson who bagged up the most chips and earned the title of overnight chip leader. Jacobson, a UK-based Swedish poker pro, is one of the world's best poker talents and has a glowing reputation. Jacobson has over $3,000,000 in live tournament winnings, a fact aided by his runner-up finishes in the 2010 EPT Vilamoura Main Event and the 2011 EPT Deauville Main Event. In his relatively young career, Jacobson has nine cashes of six-figure standing and has now given himself a legitimate chance of a seven-figure score.
Jacobson's 3,255,000 stack is one of four that contains at least 3,000,000 chips, the others belonging to Connor Drinan (3,250,000), Day 1's overnight chip leader Brandon Steven (3,140,000) and Matt Glantz (3,005,000). Drinan and Jacobson will lock horns on Friday at the same table, which opens the door for some potentially massive pots being created.
Other notables, and there are many, still in with a chance of some WSOP glory include last year's Big One for One Drop champion Antonio Esfandiari, Martin Finger, Olivier Busquet, Phil Laak, Andrew Lichtenberger, Steve Gross, Shaun Deeb, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Mike Sexton.
Play resumes in the One Drop High Rollers at 13:00 Las Vegas time and the money bubble is guaranteed to burst. When it does, the surviving players will lock up a payout of at least $173,723 and will only be 23 eliminations away from the gigantic $4,830,619 first place prize and a WSOP bracelet.
Return to the Betfair Poker blog tomorrow to discover the latest from the One Drop High Rollers Event.
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
