Sometimes, even a little drop can make a big splash. That’s certainly the case with the special poker tournament called the Little One for One Drop, which is the discounted version of the famed million-dollar buy-in Big One for One Drop. Both of these special charity-linked gold bracelet tournaments, created by the WSOP with the enthusiastic support of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte raise lots of money for clean water in the developing world. In just three years, tens of millions of dollars have been raised – all because of the generous donations made by poker players adding significantly more money to the One Drop Foundation.
This year’s so-called “Little One” was hardly small. In fact, it was huge – as in 4,496 entries. This was the final tournament completed prior to the start of the 2014 WSOP Main Event. The $1,111 buy-in tournament (of which $111 from each entry went directly to the charity) officially known as the Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em tournament was played over a five-day period, and concluded on a Sunday night at the Rio.Igor Dubinskyy, from the Ukraine, topped the huge field and won first place. He also collected $637,539 in prize money, plus his first gold bracelet.
"I am very glad to win. I am very excited to win. I am especially glad to win because this is a charity event," Dubinskyy said through a translator.
Dubinskyy is a 48-year-old self-described professional gambler. He is married and has three children.Regarding his poker accomplishments, this was only his second time to cash at the WSOP. He made the money in last year’s Main Event Championship. All of his other cashes took place in Europe, mostly in his hometown of Kiev.
"I do not have the right words to express my feelings about winning," Dubinskyy said. "I want to thank the organizers of this event and the charity for making it all possible, plus all of my friends who are here."
Ted Driscoll, from Boston, MA finished as the runner up. He started off heads-up play with the chip lead, but couldn’t hold it. Driscoll collected a nice consolation prize amounting to $394,281. Driscoll is a 52-year-old filmmaker. His works include various film documentaries, which have appeared on PBS.This final table featured only one bracelet winner, Eric Baldwin, who made his 30th career cash at the WSOP with his fifth-place finish. The rest of the line-up were all making their WSOP final table debuts.This year’s Little One for One Drop event included two starting days, producing a prize pool of $4,046,400. The top 468 players each earned a payday. Some of the notables who cashed include Carlos Mortensen (421st), Shannon Shorr (419th), Ray Henson (396th), Matt Glantz (359th), Athanasios Polychronopoulos (250th), Barry Shulman (203rd), Annette Obrestad (173rd), Paul Volpe (134th), Leo Wolpert (84th), Maurice Hawkins (13th), and recent bracelet winner Kevin Eyster, who bubbled the final table in 10th place.Here are the final table results of the $1,000 Little One for One Drop event:1st: Igor Dubinskyy - $637,5392nd: Ted Driscoll - $394,2813rd: Brandon Eisen - $283,8954th: Shai Zurr - $209,8055th: Eric Baldwin - $156,3526th: Jackduyph Duong - $117,5077th: Matthew Lapossie - $89,0208th: Vimy Ha - $68,0199th: Bao Nguyen - $52,400