Biggest prize in poker history set for Las Vegas this week

More than half of the 48 entries are professional poker players, including such big names in the game as Phil Ivey, Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and Erik Seidel. But entrants also include hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who flirted last year with buying baseball's New York Mets; Bob Bright, CEO of the stock trading firm Bright Trading; Chamath Palihapitiya, venture capitalist and a member of the ownership executive board of the NBA's Golden State Warriors; and international businessmen such as Richard Yong of Malaysia and Ilya Bulchev of Russia.

The business types of no strangers to poker. In the 2006 Main Event at the World Series, Einhorn won us$ 659,730 with an 18th place finish and announced he was donating it to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive, has won us$ 138,701 in three WSOP events over the last two years.

The tournament is being held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino as part of this summer's 61-event World Series of Poker. Officially event Number 55, and it was the brainchild of Canadian-born Guy Laliberte. He is the founder of the performing group Cirque du Soliel and also the One Drop Foundation, aimed at combating world poverty by providing access to water.

The tournament is called the "Big One for One Drop." Laliberte, a poker enthusiast, is among the us$ 1 million entrants. "I admire Guy … and any charitable cause like this that he's behind, I will be supportive of," says Dan Shak, poker pro and semi-retired hedge fund manager.

According to the WSOP website, us$ 111,111 from each us$ 1 million entry fee will be donated to One Drop - a total of us$ 5,533,328. The winner's prize, officially calculated at us$ 18,346,773 would surpass the poker record top prize of us$ 12 million won by Jamie Gold in the Main Event at the 2006 World Series of Poker.

In 2010 in Australia, Shak earned a top prize of us$ 1.2 million by winning the Aussie Millions tournament. "To be honest, if there wasn't a charitable aspect (to "Big Drop for One Drop') I probably would not be playing in it," says Shak. "But I still think I have a chance to win it, and I feel confident."

In the WSOP Main Event, which starts July 7, the buy-in will be us$ 10,000. Thousands of players will enter and each will start with 30,000 chips.

For the us$ 1 million price of admission to the "Big Drop for One Drop," each player will start with three million chips. They will play Texas Hold 'em (no limit). The tournament will run through Tuesday. On Tuesday, ESPN2 will begin coverage at 4 p.m. ET. The tournament will be shown on ESPN from 8 p.m. ET Tuesday until the conclusion.

Even the most experienced pros will have no experience playing for this kind of money. "This is obviously a historic moment that would have never happened without the efforts made my Guy Laliberte on behalf of the One Drop Foundation," says Negreau. "This is a great way to raise meaningful amount of money that will do a lot of good around the world, and this event is going to be quite a spectacle, with some of the world's best players fighting for the largest prize in poker history. I'll be giving it my all.''

So will Mizrachi, who last Friday at the WSOP earned us$ 1.46 million by winning the us$ 50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship. He won the same event two years ago. "I'm definitely going to play in the million-dollar event. I'm excited, and I can't wait to play," Mizrachi says on the WSOP Website.

Mizrachi said his participation wasn't contingent on winning the million-plus prize in the Poker Players Championship. In poker, players often take on backers to enter tournaments with agreement to share winnings with them.