The recently held Big One for One Drop poker event in Las Vegas made the headlines when 23 year old Daniel Colman held his nerve to beat reigning poker champion Daniel Negreanu and won himself $15million dollars. The Big One for One Drop poker tournament is one of the most popular poker tournaments in the world and Colman’s win is the tournament’s second highest payout in its history.
The biggest payout was in 2012 when the winner walked away with $18 million. The 2014 edition had a $1million buy-in and was a charity poker tournament.
At 23 years of age, Daniel Colman is a professional poker player and faced stiff competition from other players in the event. He had to beat 41 players in order to win the tournament.
Colman is relatively new on the poker circuit and like many others was trying to making a living playing poker. Earlier this year, he went on to win $350,000 and started to get more notice. Colman now has the credentials of beating Daniel Negreanu as well as earning the 4th highest payout any American poker player has ever achieved according to stats from the Hendon Mob poker database.
After his win, Colman downplayed the entire event and refused to make himself available for any interviews. Reporters from a number of media outlets including ESPN were eager to interview and get Colman’s view on the competition he faced from the other 41 players and his thoughts on winning $15 million but Colman avoided the press on purpose. He was finally persuaded to pose with his poker bracelet and his winnings. Some reports suggest that Colman while happy with his win does not like to promote the game of poker.
Colman did not stay long to celebrate his win but actually left the premises within 10 minutes of his win. He was seen leaving the premises of Rio’s Amazon Room together with Haralados Voulgaris and Olivier Busquet who are high profile gamblers that are presumed to have financed a part of Colman’s buy-in.
In a statement, Daniel Negreanu current CardPlayer POY speaking about his match with Colman said
Really he’s a class act, a good kid and I really like the way he plays. He plays a lot different than a lot of the other young kids, because he’s a lot more careful.
Negreanu, who is one of the most popular poker players on the circuit, took home $8 million for coming in second.
