From the cutoff seat, Christoph Vogelsang raised to 105,000. Paul Newey made the call from the small blind, and Greg Merson called out of the big blind to see the 
flop come out. Action was checked by Newey and Merson before Vogelsang fired 135,000. Newey folded, then Merson followed suit and Vogelsang won the pot.
In the first hand over at the feature table, David "Doc" Sands raised to 115,000 under the gun and Phil Ivey three-bet to 340,000 from the small blind. Scott Seiver folded from the big and Sands, who is accustomed to taking his time, thought long and hard before four-betting to 820,000. Ivey folded his hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
7,330,000
-345,000
|
-345,000 |
|
||
|
5,040,000
425,000
|
425,000 |
Players have come from around the world to take part in this year's $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, but few have come as far as "Hong Kong" Tom Hall. His nickname gives away his hometown, but it hasn't always been that way; in fact, Hall was born in Farnham, Surrey to a German mother and a Eurasian father from Hong Kong.
It wouldn't be until 1989 that Hall moved to Hong Kong, which is where he met his wife, with whom he has two daughters. It’s also where, in 2002, he and two partners, Chris Parker and Kan Tang, founded AsianLogic, for which he currently serves as Non-Exec Vice Chairman. The company started as a gaming consultancy firm assisting people hoping to do business in the Asia market, which led to relationships with companies like Betfair, DrHo888, and Playtech.
So how did the successful businessman find poker? That'd be when his friends Nam Le and JC Tran introduced him to the game.
“They taught me how to play the game properly,” Hall previously told PokerNews of his poker origins. “I learned tournament poker first from them and later on after the first time I played the Macau Big Game and lost they really worked on my cash-game strategy.”
Hall was one of the original players in the “Big Game,” which began at Wynn Macau back in 2008. Back then the stakes were much smaller at HK$1,000/$2,000 (~USD$130/$260), but that didn’t stop Hall from losing his HK$1,000,000 (~USD$130,000) buy-in that first session.
“I had no idea what I was really doing. I got really annoyed with myself as I felt that I was a better player than most at the table in those days. So Nam and JC developed a particular strategy for that game which they fine tuned as we went along,” Hall expounded. “I gave them a piece of my action in exchange for the training and we made a lot of money in the early days. I also played in the session during the 2010 APT, which really catapulted the awareness of the game to the poker community when the table was Paul Phua, Richard Yong, myself, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, and a few others. Matt Savage posted about it on TwoPlusTwo."
Nowadays that same game plays as high as USD$4,000/$8,000 to USD$12,500/$25,000, and due to stiffer competition and a busier work schedule, Hall doesn't play as much as he used to. However, he made it a point to clear his schedule for the Big One for One Drop.
“I wanted to play two years ago, but for business scheduling conflicts was unable to play. I don’t have the patience to play five-day or longer tournaments, but the chance to play in a capped-player, three-day event with some significant prize money at stake is a buzz for anyone,” Hall said of this tournament.
“Whilst I would still be a significant underdog in that event, with a bit of luck who knows what could happen…. All I will say is that if I do end up... [cashing] a decent amount of money, there will be some serious partying going on in Vegas after!”
Level: 10
Blinds: 25,000/50,000
Ante: 5,000
After a spectacular first day in which 42 players came to play, it's Sam Trickett who holds a big chip lead over the remaining field of 31 in Event #57: The $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop. Trickett finished second in the first-ever Big One for One Drop and will look to improve on that score this year, but he's still got a long way to go.
In total, just eight places will get paid and the players will be chasing down that $1,306,607 min-cash for eighth place. Meanwhile the winner of this tournament will ultimately walk away 15,306,668 richer, and none other than Phil Ivey sits among the biggest stacks as the tournament heads into the second day of play.
Defending champion Antonio Esfandiari is also among the contenders to pull off an improbable back-to-back run. Esfandiari started off slow on Day 1, but recovered and managed to finish fifth in chips. Other players with big stacks heading into Day 2 include Tom Hall, Daniel Colman, Noah Schwartz, and Rick Salomon.
While this won't be an easy day for anyone, it will be tough in particular for the short stacks of Jean-Robert Bellande, Guy Laliberté, Scott Seiver, and 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson. These players will look to gain some ground quickly, and as long as they are in anything is possible.
Play will resume at 1 p.m. local time and PokerNews will be out in full force to cover this event from start to finish.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Jean-Robert Bellande | 1,005,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Tony Gregg | 3,415,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Connor Drinan | 3,685,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Bill Klein | 2,840,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Erick Lindgren | 2,175,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Tom Hall | 9,125,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Tobias Reinkemeier | 4,125,000 |
| 1 | 8 | John Juanda | 3,215,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Paul Newey | 2,845,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Greg Merson | 1,625,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Cary Katz | 2,945,000 |
| 2 | 4 | --Empty-- | |
| 2 | 5 | Daniel Cates | 1,670,000 |
| 2 | 6 | John Morgan | 1,800,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Christoph Vogelsang | 2,060,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Erik Seidel | 4,250,000 |
| 3 | 1 | Rick Salomon | 5,840,000 |
| 3 | 2 | Guy Laliberté | 1,030,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Phil Galfond | 4,390,000 |
| 3 | 4 | Isaac Haxton | 3,370,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Antonio Esfandiari | 6,725,000 |
| 3 | 6 | Sam Trickett | 13,400,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Noah Schwartz | 6,275,000 |
| 3 | 8 | Daniel Colman | 6,875,000 |
| 4 | 1 | Phil Ivey | 7,675,000 |
| 4 | 2 | Scott Seiver | 1,165,000 |
| 4 | 3 | David Sands | 4,615,000 |
| 4 | 4 | Doug Polk | 3,885,000 |
| 4 | 5 | Gabe Kaplan | 3,475,000 |
| 4 | 6 | Brandon Steven | 4,200,500 |
| 4 | 7 | Talal Shakerchi | 1,685,000 |
| 4 | 8 | Daniel Negreanu | 4,270,000 |
Event #57: The $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop
Day 2 Started
