Coaching The Billionaires!

(Photo: Richestcelebrities.org)

The upcoming €1million buy-in Monte Carlo One Drop event may have seen the professionals being barred from playing, but that hasn’t stopped them from getting in on the action, with several of the high-stakes amateurs signing up big-name pros to coach them!

Daniel Negreanu has already been signed up by event organizer Guy Laliberte, ‘KidPoker’ tweeting recently:

I will be attending One Drop playing coach to the man himself: Guy Laliberte. Coaching venue is his yacht in the south of France next week.

— Daniel Negreanu (RealKidPoker) October 3, 2016

His fellow Canadian Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil which made him his billions, has held two previous One Drop high-roller charity events, but the fact that professionals were simply too good for the rich amateurs had seen the event’s entries drop off somewhat.

To counter this Laliberte introduced his rule that no pros could play, a somewhat controversial decision which many pros in private seemed to think would result in nobody playing at all! This was apparently proved wrong last week when Laliberte announced 35 entrants, although no names were mentioned.

Laliberte stated in a WSOP press release:

"The Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza is fast approaching and with 35 recreational players already confirmed to play and many re-entries predicted, the Big One is in real good shape."

He explained the reasoning behind the ‘pro ban’ this time round:

"The message I got was these recreational players, businessmen and philanthropists felt like they physically did not stand a chance. They wanted to play for the money and the fun of it, but they would rather stake a pro than risk playing themselves against a field of professionals."

(Photo: WSOP.com)

One leading amateur who we know intends to play is Dan Shak, who is not only selling off some of his action ion the mega-expensive event but has also retained a coach for himself – none other than Scott Seiver, one of the most successful modern-day pros.

I would like to also note that I have hired one of the best players /coaches in poker scott_seiver off of my end @YouStake@droponedrop

— Daniel Shak (@daniel_shak) October 1, 2016

Quite what separates some of the high-rolling recs from pro status is unclear. Talal Shakerchi has proven several times that he is perfectly able to mix it with the big boy pros, as has Shak and others such as David Einhorn and Paul Newey.

When asked about this recently Negreanu told PokerNews:

"First of all, if you want to run a tournament and give money to charity and you say, 'I'm going to invite these 30 people,' what say do I have? It's your event. You're raising the money! Pros don't have a leg to stand on. Basically, if Guy wants to let someone play, he can let them play. It's that simple. People are like 'Well, are you gonna let Talal [Shakerchi] play? Do you consider him an amateur?' But really, it's up to Guy. It's as simple as that.”

(Photo: Cardplayer.com)

This year's One Drop invitational tournament will be played at the Casino de Monte-Carlo, with the high-stakes fun starting next Friday 14th kicking off a 5-day ‘Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza’. Other high rolling events including a €50,000 buy-in heads-up tourney, a €1m buy-in high roller cash game and a €250,000 buy-in satellite for the recreational super-high rollers.

With over $10million raised from his Big Drop events so far, Laliberte’s creation sees €111,111 from each buy-in going directly to One Drop charity, which brings clean water to people in need across the world, while the rest of the massive $1million buy-in will go straight to the prize-fund.

The 2012 event was won by Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari while the 2014 event saw Daniel Colman take down top spot. With a new, non-pro, name destined to take the crown next week it will be interesting to see what impact, if any, the new ‘super-coaches’ will have on the event.