12-time WSOP winner Phil Hellmuth has praised Antonio Esfandiari for his performance in the $1 million BIG ONE For ONE DROP at this year's World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Esfandiari on Monday morning became the biggest winner in poker history, as he took home the record win ahead of Sam Trickett to claim a $18.3 million first prize.

Hellmuth was among the first to congratulate Esfandiari on the remarkable win, saying that "The Magician" deserves credit for his performance in the tournament.

"He's definitely a great poker player. There's no doubt about it. He has style that's super super fast and he can just completely run over a table," Hellmuth said after the event, according to the WSOP website.

"His reading abilities are also really good. I give him credit," Helmuth added.

Other friends and colleagues also chimed in with appraisal for the new champion, including Erik Seidel, who admitted to have been thrilled with the heads-up duel between Esfandiari and Sam Trickett.

"For me, it was an odd situation because I wanted the businessmen to win who were gonna give the money to charity, but it was also cool to see two elite players battle it out heads-up for the money," Seidel said.

"I think Sam is arguably the best no-limit tournament player in the world at the moment, and obviously Antonio's a great player who's been around for a long time so it was a monster heads-up match," he added.

Both Hellmuth and Seidel also played themselves in the event, however, with mixes success.

Seidel busted out already on Day 1 of the tournament, while Hellmuth made the final table before finishing in fourth place for a $2,645,333 cash prize.