But the media exposure Connor Drinan received for his insane bad beat in the WSOP Big One for One Drop was unprecedented with mainstream media outlets like Deadspin, USA Today and ESPN all picking up on the hand.
At the center of it was Drinan, who admitted he was surprised by the how popular the story became.
“It was pretty crazy how much attention it got,” he said while on break at the WSOP APAC.
“There was a little bit of commotion in the poker community the following few days after but then it kind of died down. I thought it was over. Then they aired it on ESPN and made a big deal out of it and it just totally blew up again.”
Drinan mentioned he had friends and relatives that he hadn’t talked to in years messaging him about the hand.
“Everyone was coming out of the woodwork to talk to me about it,” he said.
Drinan Felt Fortunate to Even Be Playing One Drop
Despite losing his $1 million buy-in the loss was mitigated by the fact he actually won his seat via a $25,000 satellite the day before.
“I wasn’t feeling too sorry for myself,” he said.
“It is what is. My feelings haven’t really changed. It was unfortunate but I did what I could. I got my money in with aces. It’s all you can really do.”
Interestingly Drinan, who has won millions playing online, said it probably wasn’t even the worst beat of his poker career, or at least he’d been more affected by other bad beats.
“On paper it was the worst but I’m sure there were other hands I was more upset about,” he said.
“I took this one pretty well just because I felt fortunate to even be in the tournament.”
Drinan’s obviously moved past the hand and is in the midst of his biggest poker trip stopping in Australia first and then heading to Macau for the Asian Championship of Poker.
“I figured this was a good time to come out here and check both countries out,” he said. “Do a little traveling and play some cards.”
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