Daniel Coleman was the biggest hit of the poker world in 2014. He raked in $22,389,481 in live poker tournament cashes, including winning the most lucrative event of the World Series of Poker, the Big One for One Drop, accounting for $15,306,668 of his take in 2014. His spectacular performance earned him the GPI Player of the Year Award as well.
Any up and coming poker player would do well to take advice from last year’s #1 pro, Daniel Coleman, and that’s exactly what he’s offering to the highest bidder. Coleman has put himself up for auction, so to speak, and the winning bidder will receive a personal poker training lesson with Daniel Coleman and 2014 EPT Barcelona Champion Oliver Busquet. The winner will also receive free entry to the 2015 WSOP Little One for One Drop event, valued at $1,111. As you may have guessed, all of the proceeds from the auction will benefit the One Drop Foundation.
The 25 year old poker player from Holden, Massachusetts announced his charitable intentions via a Twitter post that read: “Support @onedrop! Bid at #1night1drop auction including a poker lesson from me & @olivierbusquet. Towards a gr8 cause http://bit.ly/1F9oI5T.”
Anyone interested can bid on poker training from Daniel Coleman here. According to the website, there have been 3 bids so far, which depicts a current high bid of $3,000. Bidding will close at 11:00am EDT on March 19, 2015 (approximately 22 hours from now). The estimated value of the prize is $10,000.
It’s interesting to see just how much Daniel Coleman has opened up in the last year. He shied away from the media entirely after his phenomenal performance at the 2014 WSOP, but it would seem that the One Drop Foundation has earned a special place in his heart – one that is worth putting himself in the public eye to continue supporting the organization.
About One Drop & the WSOP
The One Drop Foundation was founded in 2009 by fellow poker pro and co-founder/CEO of Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas, Guy Laliberté. While viewing all of the continents and the surrounding oceans from aboard the International Space Station, Laliberté was overcome with the need to ensure everyone on the planet had access to clean drinking water, and made it his mission to fulfil that pledge and raise awareness for the cause. That’s exactly what One Drop has done ever since.
In 2012, Laliberté implored WSOP officials to support his cause, and they did. The first Big One for One Drop was held at the 2012 WSOP with a $1,000,000 buy-in that raised over $5 million for the foundation, and awarded its first winner, Antonio Esfandiari, with over $18 million. In 2013, the charity event was reduced to a $111,111 buy-in, and a second $1,111 Little One for One Drop event was added.
In 2014, the WSOP Big One for One Drop was renewed as a$1 million buy-in event that was won by Daniel Coleman for $15.3 million. 11% of each buy-ins ($111,111), was donated to the foundation. All told, the WSOP events have helped to raise over $11,000,000 for One Drop.