Saturday saw multi-millionaire players taking their seats for the second day in the $1 million buy-in and re-entry Big One for One Drop charity poker event at the Casino Monte Carlo, with entrepreneur and investor Al De Carolis holding the chip lead.
Five hours later De Carolis was out of the running as the bubble boy at ninth as the final table formed, with Andrew Pantling of Matchbook in the lead after busting out and investing another million dollars in a re-entry on the first day (see previous report).
Pantling dominated second day action after starting seventh in chip counts, and after a fairly slow beginning he was soon building a formidable chip lead. His stack when the final table formed and play ended for the day stood at 31,775,000, with his nearest rivals, Rick Salomon and Elton Tsang on 26,900,000 and 23,550,000 respectively.
Controversial Asian billionaire and acclaimed poker player, Paul Phua looked like the man to watch as second day play commenced; he took out four players including organiser Guy Laliberté until his star faded and he was eliminated by Rick Salomon before the final table was reached.
Following De Carolis’s elimination, tournament director Jack Effel offered the remaining eight players the opportunity to continue playing down to the cashing level of the final six, but agreement could not be reached so the eight survivors return Sunday to complete the competition.
The rewards are substantial for the six who will cash, ranging from Euro 1,500,000 for the lowest cash up to the winner’s Euro 11,111,111.
These are the final table members ranked by chip count:
Andrew Pantling 31,775,000
Rick Salomon 26,900,000
Elton Tsang 23,550,000
James Bord 18,125,000
Anatoly Gurtovoy 16,775,000
Cary Katz 9,550,000
Brandon Steven 8,000,000
Haralabos Voulgaris 5,375,000