The $18 Million Man Is the Center of Attention
Players at Antonio Esfandiari's table are quizzing him about his experience winning the biggest ever prize in a WSOP event, Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop.
One commented on how Esfandiari had begun the event at an especially difficult table, one including Vivek Rajkumar, Tom Marchese, Nick Schulman, Ben Lamb, Brandon Steven, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel.
"It was not an easy table," said Esfandiari, adding a grin to underscore the understatement.
As the conversation progressed, Scott Simpson was pushing his short stack all in from the blinds following a 
flop and getting a caller. Simpson is from Texas, and Esfandiari offered him some encouragement.
"There you go," said Esfandiari, adding "Texas doesn't mess around!" Simpson smiled. "They named the game after us," Simpson responded, tabling his 
to show he had trips. A fourth jack came on the river he scooped the small pot to survive.
Meanwhile, Andy Frankenberger was leaning over from the next table, asking Esfandiari if the One Drop event counted toward the WSOP POY race.
"I don't even know," said Esfandiari. A quick check confirmed that it did count, and in fact with the win Esfandiari had bounced into fourth place, ahead of Frankenberger (now in sixth).
"Aw man, you're ahead of me," said Frankenberger as he leaned back forward in his chair, going back to work on trying to catch back up to Esfandiari.