Most poker enthusiasts like myself are familiar with The Big
One for One Drop: a $1,000,000 buy in poker tournament where $111,111 of each buy in is
donated to the One Drop. One Drop is a
charity created by Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque de Soleil. Its mission
is to improve the living conditions of people worldwide by providing access to
safe water:(http://allinforonedrop.com/en/impact/).
Antonio Esfandiari won the inaugural One Drop in 2012 for a
cool $18.3 million. Obviously it’s a
fantastic accomplishment to win that much money against some of the best
players in the world, but what’s more important in my eyes is the fact that One
Drop and Antonio bring out the ‘good’ in poker by giving back to the community and putting the game in a positive light.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about this year’s champion: Dan
Colman, who defeated Daniel Negreanu heads up for the title.
Colman, known as ‘mrgr33n13’ online, barely spoke with the
media and frankly didn’t seem excited to have won The Big One for One Drop
tournament. Several days after the
tournament he wrote a post on poker community forum Two Plus Two explaining his
thoughts on the game, labeling poker to be “a very dark game” and that so few
people are able to turn a profit.
Regardless of how truthful his assertion’s are, they are
hypocritical coming from a person who makes a living playing a game against
people that are worse at said game then him.
He essentially says that people are ‘tricked’ into playing poker, and
that a minimal percentage of players turn a profit playing poker. I see his points, and he’s right that more
people lose at poker than win at it, but if he’s so against the game itself why
does he even play. Does he gain any
satisfaction winning money from people who have been ployed into playing poker
through marketing schemes that prey on people’s impulses?
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| Negreanu helps attract new players to play poker |
Almost all of Colman’s rationale is counter-productive to
his future success in the industry. If
he and
Despite his insistence that poker is a dark game, lots of people are
capable of playing within their means and enjoying poker while still living a
comfortable life. In addition,
individuals like him who aren’t friendly and don’t seem to care won’t bring
more people into the game. Poker isn’t
televised nearly as much as it was five to ten years ago, and Daniel Colman
winning the One Drop certainly won’t help increase it's viewership or popularity.
Although he plays very well and his win was impressive, poker as a whole
would’ve been much better off if a player like Daniel won.
other pro’s want to keep being successful, a great way to maintain that
success is to attract new players to the game.
What Colman didn’t understand is that, at least in my
personal opinion, the One Drop tournament transcends the ‘game’ aspect of poker. Colman says it doesn’t, and I vehemently
disagree. Not only is the One Drop
tournament fantastic publicity for the good that poker can do, but also a stage
for the top players in the world to welcome new players to the game with their
warm personalities and passion for the game.
Unfortunately, Colman displayed neither of those attributes. I congratulate him on his win and can
understand where he comes from, but I truly hope a player like Antonio and
Daniel Negreanu wins the next one, as it would be much better for the game of
poker as a whole.
