Elton Tsang and Mustapha Kanit Reflect on €11,111,111-One Drop Extravaganza Win

The Big One for One Drop Extravaganza was a somewhat odd tournament. Other than the fact that no professional players were allowed, nothing was that much different from a regular poker event. But that stipulation made all the difference. The entire event had a different vibe to it. While there was more money at stake than just about any other event, the players seemed not to really notice. On top of that, we hardly knew anything about the top contenders.

Elton Tsang won the event, banking €11,111,111 which makes for the third largest first-place prize in the history of the game. Tsang already had some cashes on his poker resume and poker fans might recognize him from his participation in the big cash game at the Aussie Millions back in 2012, but he remained a bit of a mystery. This clearly wasn’t his first rodeo, but we didn’t really know all that much about him, let alone how he experienced playing the event.

Tsang had a coach, Mustapha Kanit, the Italian wunderkind with $7,735,689 in live tournament earnings to his name. Kanit also coached Mark Teltscher for a bit, but Tsang was his real “client” and the two spoke just about every break. PokerNews talked to both Tsang and Kanit to learn a bit more.

Everything Tsang’s Way

Tsang started the final day winning multiple pots against Andrew Pantling, the start of day chipleader.

“Yeah, I was feeling good, feeling comfortable,” Tsang said. “I was hitting cards, my bluffs were working, I was getting a good read on the table and everything was just going my way.”

Kanit said they knew how to play the opening phase of the final table, which still had eight players left in contention and six paid out, because they had strategized.

“We discussed a lot of that openly; when to put the pressure on and when not to.”

They even talked about certain players and their typical play. Kanit had played Pantling in the EPT’s €50,000 and €100,000 events,.

“We discussed Andrew and his playing style a lot because he was one of the guys I knew the best,” Kanit said. “I know he’s a really tough opponent. He’s really aggressive and he pushes back a lot. We had a lot of information and that worked to our advantage.”

There was a lot of money on the line. When the day started, two players had to go before the bubble would burst. Tsang took advantage of that particular time by putting maximum pressure on Pantling.

“[Kanit] was telling me to just put the pressure on since it was bubble time,” he said. “I was just loosening up and just started raising, raising, raising, raising, raising.”

Kanit was pleasantly surprised with Tsang’s level of play.

“I’m really impressed by his game,” Kanit said. “I’m impressed with how he managed the final table and I’m impressed with how everything went.”

While the cards worked out in Tsang’s favor and the strategy was clear from the get-go, what really set the duo Kanit and Tsang apart was preparation.

“We worked hard, we put in a lot of hours,” Kanit said. “In the end, we were more prepared. We did more than the others.”

Tsang & Kanit Prepping

While some coaches had been paired just at the opening lunch minutes before the event started, Tsang and Kanit had started working together much much earlier. Tsang and Kanit were friends already well before the tournament started and took the player-coach relationship really seriously.

The real preparation began two weeks before the event started when Kanit traveled to Asia.

“We were in Asia together and we would do reviews,” Kanit said. “I would send him videos, I would send him hands, we would talk about strategy, we talked a lot about poker. Every single break we spent together. We put a lot of work in.”

Tsang was more than happy with his coach, having nothing but good words for his teacher.

“He was a really good coach and he gave me a lot of good advice,” Tsang said.

While Tsang was anything but new to the game, the world of tournaments wasn’t one he specialized in.

“I don’t play tournaments that much these days, but I used to.” Tsang said. “I knew some strategies, but it was good to have someone to talk to in between hands. I think it helped a great deal.”

Kanit was thrilled by Tsang’s …

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