Antonio Esfandiari just scored the biggest prize in poker history.
Now dirty little secret time for our mainstream readers: if he (or any pro outside of Phil Ivey) owned all 100% of himself, the score would be even sweeter. None of these guys completely owned themselves.
Regardless, the Magician controlled final table action, defeating Sam Trickett heads-up to bank $18,346,673. Trickett takes home $10,112,001.
The win makes Esfandiari poker’s all-time tournament money winner (obviously), putting him over the $22M mark. Tricket now has over $16M in career earnings.
Phil Hellmuth grinded out a fourth place finish for $2,645,333.
The two rich guys who were going to donate all prize money to charity–David Einhorn and Guy Laliberté–finished third ($4,352,000) and fifth ($1,834,666) respectively.
Get full final table results here.
July 4, 2012 1:29 am,
Chops, a question:
Let’s say I gave $500K to Esfandiari, and he put up the other $500K. He won $18.3M.
Now, he’s going to pay taxes on that immediately, right (i.e., he doesn’t go to the cash cage and get $18.3M immediately…he gets taxes taken out right away)?
Assuming that’s the case, how much money do I get? Do I get 50% of his winnings, minus 50% of the taxes? How does that normally get worked out?
And, of course, I’m sure he’s got more than just 1 backer…so how do these guys figure that out (or is that what his personal finance manager does)?
You know, because I’m sure that’s how Chino Rheem rolls…