News on the Big One for ONE DROP came out earlier and ten players have been added to the field. This brings the total field to 33 runners and only 23 seats remain.
Here are some quick thoughts on the list of new participants.
Vanessa Selbst – Vanessa agreeing to sign-up for the event is epic. Not only will she provide a much needed female prescience for the event but how amazing would it be if she took it down.
A win by Selbst would give her over $29.6 million in earnings and would catapult her to the top of the All-Time Money List. I think she becomes my new favorite not named Phil Ivey.
Jean-Robert Bellande – So “BrokeLivingJRB” is playing in the $1 Million ONE DROP. Publicity stunt? Absolutely. The question is, does he have a shot?
Frankly, yes. Love him or hate him, he is one helluva player when he is on his A-Game. This could be the event to resurrect his career, or he could crash and burn early on the first day. I don’t see any middle ground in this event for him.
Niklas Heinecker – Not a shock he entered this event following his excellent 2013. They did tell him this is NL Hold’em and not 2-7 Triple Draw yes?
Heinecker is a formidable opponent regardless of the game and will be a player to watch in the event. I see him going deep and maybe even making the final table.
Anonymous Asian Businessman – Interesting how they made the distinction that this was an Asian businessman. Seems a subtle hint that there might be some loose money at the table.
Anthony Gregg – This is another player I will watch closely in the ONE DROP. He won last year’s ONE DROP high roller for $4.8 million and will put up nearly 25% of that win to take a crack at $20 million.
With $9.1 million in earnings, and a large portion of that in high-roller events, he could be one of the favorites at the start of the event.
The Big One for ONE DROP is scheduled to have 56 participants this year and there’s no reason why that number will not be met. Players already committed to the event include defending champion Antonio Esfandiari, Bobby Baldwin, Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, Sam Trickett and Erik Seidel.
The other big announcement in today’s press release is that ESPN will expand coverage of the event and will air the event over three weeks with two hours of coverage each week. Frankly, this is way too much coverage for this event. I can see maybe two hours for one week or one hour spread over three weeks, but six hours of coverage for a 56 player high roller is overkill in my opinion.
Yes, this is a big deal for the WSOP and (I guess) for poker. It’s hard for me to get hyped up for the event outside of the potential for Selbst to become poker’s all-time money leader. Even so, six hours of coverage is excessive.
What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment. Also follow me on Twitter at @compncards.
