While things are relatively calm in the Rio today, there's some pressure building up.
The hallways are bustling with scantily-clad WSOP girls trying to sign people up and a number of players eagerly awaiting the most-expensive satellite of the summer.
Tomorrow, all the pressure and anticipation will be released in One Drop. The $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Rollers NLHE event starts tomorrow at noon and today is the last chance many players will get at winning their seat.
While players can still buy in up until the event, today's the last chance to get a discounted seat.
A $5,200 satellite ran yesterday and drew 59 players, creating a prize pool of two One Drop seats and a third-place cash prize.
While WSOP staff wasn't allowed to provide official results of the satellite, they did mention that a certain bracelet winner might have gotten it right online:
For those who were asking , I heard Connor Drinan and Alex Venovski won the One Drop Mega @Kevmath@toddbterry@msalsberg@DanFleyshman
— Cliff Josephy (@JohnnyBaxPoker) June 26, 2013Drinan and Venovski secured a seat yesterday but a few more players are joining the list of One Drop contenders today.
There's another $5,200 satellite running in the Pavilion Room, but one lucky player got in for free. The WSOP has been enticing players to register for a WSOP.com account with women in short skirts and promises of $500,000 in added money to the first WSOP.com online championship.
They were also giving away a free seat to the One Drop.
Out of the thousands of players that registered for an account this summer, professional Pakistani player Owais Ahmed won the free seat to the One Drop.
Ahmed won the $2.5K Omaha/7-Card Stud Hi/Lo back in 2011 for $255,959. Ahmed outlasted a field of 450 players and beat Michael Mizrachi heads-up to win his first bracelet.
He has accumulated $1.1 million in live tournament cashes and like many professionals, was considering playing the One Drop:
@DanFleyshman I'll sell 99% of myself at even money. Interested? Ok, now that we got that outta the way, I'm selling the 50k at 1.1 :-P
— Owais Ahmed (@oerockets) June 25, 2013But a free seat changes everything:
I'm selling one drop action at face...hit me up if you're interested.
— Owais Ahmed (@oerockets) June 26, 2013If anyone wants to buy large chunks of one drop action, I'll sell large shares at mark down
— Owais Ahmed (@oerockets) June 26, 2013@DanFleyshman remem when I offered to sell one drop last night, might be true since I just won a one drop seat via http://t.co/BdSSjGvz2E
— Owais Ahmed (@oerockets) June 26, 2013While Ahmed took the free seat, 80 players paid $5,200 for a chance at another seat today. Ben Lamb, Brian Rast, Sorel Mizzi, Taylor Paur, Felipe Ramos and Dwyte Pilgrim are among those who bought into the last One Drop satellite and are battling for three One Drop seats.
Last year's Big One for One Drop saw a $1 million buy-in and 11.1 percent of each buy-in went straight to the One Drop foundation.
Forty-eight players signed up, nine cashed and Antonio Esfandiari won. Esfandiari took home $18,346,673 while the One Drop Foundation received $7.28 million from the event.
The haul for The One Drop Foundation is expected to be smaller tomorrow due to the reduced buy-in and percentage going to charity.
There will still be no rake for the event, but only 3 percent -- or $3,333.33 -- of each buy-in will go to The One Drop Foundation.
While those numbers are smaller, we're already guaranteed to beat last year's field size. With late registration and satellites still open, tomorrow's field is expected to cross 100 players.
Join us tomorrow at noon PDT as we bring you news and live coverage of the 2013 One Drop High Rollers Event.
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