July 4, 2012 - Only in Las Vegas: Professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari (pictured above hugging his $18 Million) on Tuesday became the biggest winner in poker tournament history, beating some of the most prominent pros in the game and at least two billionaires to take a first-place prize of more than $18 million.
After three days of play, Mr. Esfandiari, 33, finished with all the chips in The Big One for One Drop, a charity event of the World Series of Poker. Sam Trickett, a professional poker player from the U.K., won $10.1 million for second place.
Mr. Esfandiari, nicknamed “The Magician,” for once working as a professional magician, is originally from Tehran but was raised in San Jose, Calif. He has been prominent on the poker circuit since he won a $1.4 million first-place prize in a World Poker Tour event in 2004.
With winnings of $17.3 million—which exclude the $1 million buy-in—Mr. Esfandiari took home the biggest prize known in a poker tournament. The previous record for a poker tournament first-place prize was $12 million in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event, according to One Drop organizers. On Tuesday, dressed in a green hoodie, he led the final group of eight players going into the last day of the tournament.
“I just knew I was going to win,” Mr. Esfandiari said in an interview on ESPN after the game. Follow the link below for the complete story. (Note: Your editor lives in Las Vegas, NV; however, I did not participate in the tournament).
The Master of Disaster
Antonio Esfandiari Wins $18 Million in World Series of Poker.
Too bad that man doesn’t want the slow winnings of the blackjack table and has gone all in. Hopefully, we won’t lose that wager and become extinct.