The 2012 World Series Of Poker
The 2012 World Series of Poker featured 61 total events including the world famous Main Event that continues to enjoy enormous popularity year after year. The event once again took place at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, which isn’t actually located in Las Vegas as most people think, it’s actually in Paradise, Nevada, which is a town located within the Las Vegas area where the world famous Las Vegas strip resides.
More than 75,000 entrants sat down at the WSOP this year to compete for a total prize pool of over $192 million. This is as big as it gets in the poker world and the WSOP has long been the poker Mecca of the world every summer, and this year’s edition was certainly no exception.
The 2012 WSOP boasted the 5th largest live poker event in history with its main event this year. While things did peak back in 2006 prior to the limiting factors of the UIGEA, fears that the troubles in the online poker industry would present had people thinking that the glory days of the WSOP were over. Once again though the poker world has demonstrated that the WSOP is much too big and popular to be affected very much by anything.
One of the most exciting events of this year’s WSOP was the inaugural One Drop tournament, which required a buy in of one million dollars to get a seat. 48 poker players and high profile businessmen sat down to compete for what would be the biggest prize in WSOP history, over 18 million dollars. This was double what the WSOP main event winner would take home this year, and over 6 million more than the previous record held by Jamie Gold in his 2006 WSOP main event win.
This tournament also offered the WSOP’s first Platinum bracelet, valued at approximately $350,000. A significant part of the profits from this tournament was donated to provide safe and clean drinking water to those who do not enjoy this life giving resource.
The tournament featured a lot of big names in addition to quite a few wealthy amateurs who were also looking for the fame and fortune that winning this huge tournament would bring. The lineup certainly was tough though, and included such accomplished pros as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandieri, Phil Galfond, Ben Lamb, Brian Rast, Sam Trickett, Daniel Negreanu, Eric Seidel, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, among others, in addition to former WSOP main event winner Jonathan Duhamel, WSOP TV host Mike Sexton, and poker legend Bobby Baldwin.
The final table consisted of Esfandieri, Hellmuth. Baldwin, Rast, Trickett, Sexton, Cirque du Soleil founder and tournament creator Guy Laliberte, Chinese businessman Richard Yong, and American businessman David Einhorn. So we ended up with 2 famous poker players in Hellmuth and Esfandieri, 2 up and coming young pros in Rast and Trickett, old timer Bobby Baldwin, and 3 wealthy amateurs looking to make a real big statement.
The tournament was a lot more upbeat and relaxed than you normally see at the WSOP, in spite of all of the money at stake. Players were often seen clowning around and even showed their mucked hands quite a few times. It was also entertaining to watch and overall was a good time.
Antonio Esfandieri wasn’t planning to enter this tournament, as the huge buy in is a big deal even for pros, but he said that he had a good feeling and while the risk was high, the reward was high as well, so he felt that it was worth a shot.
After all the cards were dealt, Esfandieri ended up walking away with the title, the platinum bracelet, and $18,346,673. Sam Trickett finished second, and billionaire David Einhorn was the top amateur, finishing third and grabbling over $4.3 million. Einhorn donated his entire prize to charity.
The 2012 final table for the WSOP has been determined, although this year it will be known as the October Nine rather than the November Nine, as the final table has been moved up to late October due to the U.S. election taking place in early November this year.
As has been customary for the last few years, nine lucky players will compete for the championship, having survived the thousands of original entrants to the main event. All of the final table entrants are guaranteed a huge prize at the very least, and how much they take home will depend on how the action goes over the final two days of this event, which we now await.
Please follow the link to find out more aboutthe 2012 final nine.