Poker Players (or at Least this One) Have the Biggest Cajones

For a wide receiver to go across the middle when he knows Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher is lurking—that takes big brass ones too. To stand your ground and take the charge when Dwight Howard is looking to slam one down on you takes brass ones too.

However, the man with the largest set of brass cajones is not a football, basketball, baseball, rugby—any type of traditional sports player. He plays poker (it's on ESPN so it must be a sport, right?).

To lay down a million bucks to play a game of poker takes a bit of courage in itself. Most of us could not imagine taking such a risk with that much money. How about taking an even bigger risk with $3.4 million?

That's what a corporate CEO did during the first day of the "Big One for One Drop" pro-am tournament being held at Caesar's right now.

John Morgan was faced with a raise of $700,000 by Russian businessman Mikhail Smirnov. Little did he know, but  Smirnov had four 8s (two in hand and two on the flop). With that kind of raise he must have figured that Smirnov had something, but that didn't stop him from going all in.

With a 7,8, and jack of spades on the table he bet $3.4 million. Smirnov folded.

He would later explain that he was certain that Morgan had a royal flush (one of the rarest hands in poker). For some odd reason he assumed that Morgan would not bluff because he's a professional and likes the tournament.

I'm not a big poker player, but isn't bluffing part of the game?

To be fair, Morgan could have had a royal flush. Since Smirnov folded he was not obligated to show his hand. So we'll never know whether he had the hand or not. Either way it takes a real big pair of brass big ones to even think about trying it.

Both players made it past Day One, but neither made it past Day Two. In the end, the man with the biggest payday was Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari. He won the tournament and its $18,346,673 grand prize.

(For some background info on the tournament click play.)