No Bet Too Small For Esfandiari
Just two weeks ago, Antonio Esfandiari played in the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and we wrote about a high-stakes game of Lodden Thinks between Bill Perkins and Dan Colman, with Esfandiari involved as well.
Right now, on Day 1b of the $10,600 Aussie Millions Main Event, Esfandiari's playing at a table without any of his regular prop-betting friends, but the 2012 $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop winner got acquainted with his opponents real fast.
"I got a good question for the next game," a player at the adjacent table yelled. "What percentage did Antonio have of himself when he won the One Drop tournament?"
"That's actually a great question," Antonio smiled, "But I'm not gonna pose that question myself, that would be too arrogant."
"How much was the buy-in of that, $100,000 or $1,000,000?" John Caridad asked.
The players talked about the question for a bit, and Martin Boersma, in Seat 2, offered himself up to be the brain again.
"Alright," Boersma said as he put his phone down. "I got the number locked in."
"How much are we playing for?" Esfandiari asked. "$200 this time?"
"I won a satellite for this tournament, my wife wouldn't let me play for more than $100 per game," Caridad joked.
Caridad, no stranger to big events with a fourth-place finish in the 2010 Bellagio Cup for $237,902, convinced Esfandiari to play for $100 and the betting began.
"Seven," Esfandiari opened up the betting.
"Ten," Caridad responded, and the line quickly shifted up to 22 before the two ended up playing a hand against each other.
"You play a lot of poker?" Caridad then asked Boersma.
"You can't be asking questions mid-bidding," Esfandiari joked, "That's the fun of the game, we both don't have any info!"
"It's about what he thinks, and that's what f***s me," Caridad said, and everyone burst out in laughter.
After Esfandiari raked in the pot, Caridad reopened the bidding with 23, Esfandiari went to 24, and Caridad upped it to 25.
"You're learning," Esfandiari smiled, as he'd clearly been teaching the players at his table how to play this game.
Esfandiari then went to 26, and Caridad bought, meaning he would get every number from zero to 25%.
"You want to double the bet?" Esfandiari then asked Caridad.
"Yeah, we'll make it $200," the all-of-a-sudden-confident Lodden Thinks rookie said, despite the threat of his wife not liking him betting this big.
"You lose, Antonio," Boersma said, as he revealed his number was 20%, and the entire table cheered.
"Beaten at your own game!" one player laughed, while Esfandiari laughed with them.
One player bluntly asked, "So much did you really have of yourself?"
"Only two people know," Esfandiari said without revealing the actual number, as he won the Big One for One Drop for $18,346,673.
After the dust settled, Caridad collected his $200, and Esfandiari said, "Alright boys, let's kick if up!" and he got everyone to laugh again while being serious at the same time.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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25,000 | |
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