So far 30 players have officially committed to playing the Big One, but four of the slots are occupied by anonymous businessmen.
Shakerchi finished 10th today in the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, meaning he’s not averse to playing high, and he finished Day 1 as chip leader, indicating he’s got what it takes to compete against the world’s best.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” said Shakerchi in Monaco in regards to the WSOP Big One commitment.
“It’s obviously a very special tournament for everyone that’s going to be playing so I’ve got my eye on it,” he said.
When pressed to categorically deny his commitment he cracked a wry smile and said, “I’m not saying yes and I’m not saying no.”
Shakerchi is an asset manager for Meditor and he started playing poker roughly five years ago.
Recreational Player with Deep Pockets
Since 2007 Shakerchi has notched cashes on the WPT, EPT and WSOP. His biggest score to date was a third-place finish at the 2008 Grand Prix de Paris worth close to a quarter of a million dollars.
“I play poker recreationally for the thrill of it, but what I really want to do as much as possible is play against the top pros,” said Shakerchi.
“Because I’ve got a day job I only get to play five or ten events a year so I choose the events pretty carefully and play the ones where I think there will be the most pros.
“The other criteria for me is that I want to avoid traveling too far because it takes too much time out of work,” he added.
Based on his list of results, we know Shakerchi is willing to make the trip to Las Vegas. And as far as top pros, the world’s elite will certainly be playing the Big One at the 2012 WSOP.
And if Shakerchi is restricted to a limited number of events, it makes sense he’d want one of them to be the richest tournament in poker history.
Former Chess Player Prefers Poker
Before poker Shakerchi played chess, but he considers Texas Hold’em to be the more complicated game.
“You start out thinking it’s about the cards and then you start thinking it’s about position, and then it’s about the other players’ cards, and then you realize that it’s really about people, and it just gets more and more complex,” said Shakerchi.
“I used to play a lot of chess and that’s very much a game played on the board, and you can more or less ignore your opponent altogether.
“Whereas poker, on the face of it, is a very simple game, you just get two cards and the maths is very straightforward but actually it’s a hugely complex game, more complex than chess because of the human element.
“And you can see that because computers have been designed to beat the best chess players but it’s not possible with poker,” he said.
PokerListings.com will be in Las Vegas reporting on the Big One for One Drop live, but in the meantime you can get updates on the world’s first $1 million event on our WSOP Big One: Player List and Bio post.
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