WPT and One Drop Foundation first collaboration concludes with Jonathan Jaffe and Bin Weng as champions; second series underway in Jeju Island, Korea

The first collaboration between the World Poker Tour (WPT) and One Drop Foundation was an eight-day series held at the Wynn Las Vegas with two tournaments to help raise funds from July 9 to 16, 2023.

The $10,500 buy in WPT EveryOne for One Drop generated $335,200 and the WPT Alpha8 for One Drop generated $315,000 for a generous contribution of $650,200 to the charitable organization whose mission is to provide sustainable access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for communities facing extreme challenges. One Drop Foundation’s Chief of Marketing and Events Officer, Alex Meunier expressed during the Alpha8 tournament,

“This morning when you woke up, probably took a shower, turned on the faucet to drink a glass of clean water, that isn’t the case for 2 billion people who don’t have access to safe water. So you are contributing to changing this. Every player that is sitting at the tables today transforms the lives of 80 people, that is in a lot of countries, entire villages in Africa, India, and Latin America.”

The games then proceeded. At the WPT EveryOne for One Drop, Bin Weng entered the final table as chip leader and continued to bulldoze the competition to win $2,227,054.

Weng has been on fire this year. Including this victory, he has topped four events, three were seven digit payouts. Both Scott Baumstein (2nd) and Niko Koop (3rd) also pocketed seven figures. The $10,500 buy in event ran from July 9 to 14, attracting 1,676 entries for a prize pool of $16,257,200.

At the WPT Alpha8 for One Drop, 45 coughed up the $111,000 price tag with $7,000 per buy in going to the foundation. The prize pool came to $4,612,500 with 7 places paid. Among the big names that reached ITM were Isaac Haxton who just made the cut in 7th place and Dan Smith who finished 3rd place.

The top two locked up over a million. Champion Jonathan Jaffe won a career high $1,537,600 and runner up Taylor Von Kriegenbergh claimed $1,042,100.

WPT Alpha8 for One Drop in Korea

The next WPT Alpha8 for One Drop will take place from July 21 to 22 in Jeju Island, Korea at the Jeju Shinhwa World Landing Casino. Buy in is slightly higher of KR₩ 170 Million which is roughly $133,930. 

These events are lead-ups to the return of the Big One for One Drop which features a  jaw-dropping $1,000,000 buy in. The event will run from December 18 to 20 as part of the WPT World Championship Festival.