$1 Million Buy-in Tourney Now Official WSOP Bracelet Event by Russ Scott on Creators.com

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$1 Million Buy-in Tourney Now Official WSOP Bracelet Event

Twenty years passed before the World Series of Poker main event awarded $1 million for first place (1991). Online poker's first million-dollar top prize happened just nine months ago.

Can you say "chicken feed"?

Coming in early July at the 2012 WSOP is a no-limit hold 'em event that costs $1 million — just to enter! That's a record for poker.

As of last week, 22 players had committed to the tournament, the magic number for recognition as an official bracelet event. Not just any old gold bracelet, either — it'll be a special platinum one

Better still, $111,111 of each buy-in will be donated to the charitable organization One Drop, chaired by Cirque du Soliel founder Guy Laliberte.

Working with WSOP and Caesars officials, Laliberte announced the "Big One for One Drop" tourney in June as a way to bring focus and funds to the global lack of access to clean usable water for a billion people.

With a 48-player cap and half a year yet to go for signups, the current first-place prize record of $12 million, won in 2006 by Jamie Gold, almost certainly will fall.

You'll recognize some of the players signed up so far, including Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Bobby Baldwin, Antanas "Tony G" Guoga, Dan Shak and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

ESPN will televise the tournament.

One of the first to register was Jonathan Duhamel, WSOP 2010 main event champ and a spokesperson for One Drop.

"Life starts with water, and because of its uneven distribution, a person dies every 20 seconds," said Duhamel. The money raised "will definitely prove the poker community attachment to One Drop."

The tournament joins a long line of events that showcase the ongoing generosity of poker players.

Also, in keeping with poker's "anybody can play" spirit, several entries into the tournament will be up for grabs through satellite competition.

One of those is a U.S.-oriented seat offered by Caesars, with qualifying details yet to come.

If you don't win a seat but want to play, the requirements are simple: You must be at least 21 and plunk down $50,000 to hold your spot. The remaining $950,000 isn't due until about two weeks before the July 1 tournament.

In a rarity, there's no house entry fee. Quite a bargain, eh?

Now get this: Records set by the "Big One" could fall within months.

First to challenge could be the recently announced debut tournament of the International Stadiums Poker Tour, with an off-the-charts guaranteed prize pool of $30 million.

ISPT's idea is to host a mega-tournament annually in famous stadiums around the world. First up would be Wembley Stadium in London sometime between mid-August and early October, 2012.

The five-day event would start with 20,000-30,000 online qualifiers competing in shootout format on electronic pads from their stadium seats. Round 1 survivors would advance to real poker table action on the arena field.

If all goes as planned, the champ would receive $10 million.

Meanwhile, word surfaced last week of a plan by some Chinese businessmen to hold the richest tourney ever in the spring of 2013 in Macau. The expected prize pool: up to $100 million, with $25 million going to the winner!

Where do we sign up?

E-mail your poker questions and comments to russ@luckydogpoker.com for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit creators.com or luckydogpoker.com.

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