He’s a familiar face at casinos all along the Las Vegas Strip. He has never won a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet or cashed at a major WSOP event, yet he counts among his friends the biggest names in the world of poker. He is someone extraordinarily special—a visionary, high-flying, self-made billionaire who plays the No Limit version of Life—Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Guy Laliberté.
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Off to Join the Circus
Born in Quebec City in 1959, Laliberté may be on top of the world now, but it certainly wasn’t always that way. He was raised in the small town of St-Bruno and left home at age 18 to hitchhike throughout Europe while working as a street performer. He played the accordion and harmonica for spare change, learned the arts of fire-breathing and stilt-walking, and returned to Quebec rich in experience, but broke and unable (or unwilling) to return to school.
A short stint working at a hydroelectric dam was followed by a return to busking, organizing parties and street festivals out of a youth hostel. Then Laliberté’s big break came in 1984, when at age 24, long hair down to his waist, he landed a $1.3 million grant from the Quebec government to stage a street-show tour for the province’s 450th anniversary celebrations of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Canada.
The tour was supposed to last a year, but it never stopped. In fact, it is still going strong today under the name Cirque du Soleil, meaning “circus of the sun.” It was a name he came up with while in Hawaii, reflecting his idea that “the sun stands for energy and youth.” Laliberté has been instrumental in the creation of such theatrical hits as “O” and “Mystère,” “KÀ” and “Zumanity,” and every Cirque du Soleil show since 1984.
Work Hard, Play Hard
The now-bald ringmaster has a passion for many things in life, with circus and business topping the list. Travel is another. His work has taken him to every continent except Antarctica, and in 2009 he went somewhere few tourists have ever gone before—into orbit. He was the seventh passenger to fly aboard Space Adventures’ private Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, spending eleven full days in space.
Down on Earth, Laliberté enjoys poker as a hobby, too, and like everything else, he has turned out to be pretty good at it. In 2007, he tabled at the World Poker Tour Season Five event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, winning $696,220 for finishing fourth. Until Black Friday, he was known as a regular at Full Tilt Poker’s highest stakes tables, too, and he has taken part in several televised celebrity poker events, such as GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” and NBC’s “Poker After Dark.”
Laliberté has never given any thought to turning professional at the tables. He’s having far too much fun conquering the world of live stage entertainment, aiming at big franchises in New York and London as well as Las Vegas. But he does have one huge dream that involves card play, and even though he won’t earn a dime from it, Laliberté is the driving force behind the biggest single poker tournament ever held.
Watering the World
As the 464th richest person on Earth, according to Forbes’ survey of 2012, Laliberté believes billionaires have an obligation to give back to the people who have made them wealthy. “We are in a position of financial and social power,” he has said, “and we could be agents of change in our society.”
Specifically, the magnate of magical, musical productions has chosen to concentrate his attention on one particular problem: “No one can remain indifferent when we know that at least every eight seconds, a child dies from a disease caused by drinking contaminated water.”
In 2007, Laliberté created a charitable foundation called “One Drop” to solve the world’s water woes. He pledged a $100 million contribution over the next 25 years, “to mobilize people everywhere in the world to find sustainable solutions to the problem of access to water, and to adopt better practices for the use of this precious resource.”
Most recently, Laliberté announced he was joining forces with the WSOP to stage the biggest philanthropic event ever held in the world of poker—The $1,000,000 Buy-In “Big One for One Drop.” Debuting on July 1, 2012, the made-for-TV, 48-seat tournament should feature a prize pool of over $400 million. Exactly $111,111 from each entry fee will be donated to the One Drop Foundation—no small drop in the bucket for a man who is quite used to doing everything in a spectacular way.