WSOP Charity Competition Stages Battle of Financial Titans

The 166 participants in the WSOP Event 47 - the $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Roller charity tournament include renowned professional poker players as well as wealthy businessmen, and this week brought an interesting clash between Bill Perkins (44), the founder of Skylar Capital Management LP and hedge-fund manager David Einhorn. Perkins outplayed Einhorn and managed to secure the seventh spot in the list of 26 players still alive after two days of NLHE action at the Rio in the charity event that will probably see its winner during the weekend. All players have undoubtedly set their heart on a main prize of $4.8 million from the record-high prize pool of $17.8 million, though handsome amount of minimum $173,723 is guaranteed to 24 finishers. Friday action was marked by Martin Jacobson, a 25-year-old poker professional from Stockholm, who held the chip lead on 3.255 million chips, and was followed by poker pro Connor Drinan, who had 3.25 million. Perkins had 2.75 million. Other best ranked players from the financial world include Richard Fullerton, president of RBF Capital LLC of Greenbrae, California, on the 14th position with 1.7 million chips; Lawrence Greenberg, general partner of Boston-based Alydar Capital LLC, on the 16th position with almost 1.6 million; and Dan Shak, founder of Las Vegas-based SHK Asset Management, on the 24th position with 1 million. The poker pro Antonio Esfandiari who won the last year's $18.3 million top prize when the charity event included a $1 million buy-in, is on the fifth position with just under 3 million chips.