Daniel Negreanu was eliminated in Sunday's Round of 16 in the $25K Heads-Up Championship.
He was drawn against Biao Ding, the Triton regular with $21,329,348 in career earnings. He'd won three Triton titles but was still chasing his first WSOP bracelet.
Negreanu was looking for his eighth.
First blood to Negreanu
It was a slow start for Negreanu, but he won the first big pot of the match.
Ding raised to 24K with 
and Negreanu peeled 
. He three-bet to 84K and Ding thought a while before putting in a four-bet to 222K. Negreanu called.
The 
flop hit Negreanu and he checked. Ding bet 100K and Negreanu called.
Negreanu checked the 
turn and Ding continued the aggression, betting 220K. Negreanu called again.
The 
completed the board and Negreanu checked a third time. Ding gave it up and looked at his cards again with disdain before mucking. "Ace-king?" said Negreanu with a chuckle.
Ding chipped back up and took the lead, but after two hours of play, they were both back to starting stacks.
Ding on the ropes
Negreanu took charge of the match at this point. He won another big pot with 
vs. 
on a 
board.
That gave him a huge 10:1 chip lead with 2.2 million to Ding's 200K.
You'd have gotten great odds on a Ding win at this point in their match.
Negreanu had his first shot at finishing the match shortly afterward when he called Ding's all-in for his last 171K with 
. Ding had 
and survived on the 
board.
His second shot came straight after when he jammed with . Ding had the best of it (just) with 
and the 
board favored him again.
Negreanu hits a cold deck
Then came the killer.
Negreanu limped with , Ding raised with 
and Negreanu moved all-in. Ding made a pretty loose call with 30 big blinds.
The flop was safe, and the turn left Negreanu one card away from victory, but the 
hit like a dagger.
"I can't take it anymore," Negreanu said, walking away from the table. He went to talk to his friend Josh Arieh and talked him through the three hands that had left him on fumes.
And those fumes disappeared on the next hand. Negreanu moved all-in with 
and Ding beat him with .
It was a brutal last 30 minutes for Negreanu. "Oh god, that one stings," he said as he walked off.
The $25K Heads-Up Championship plays down to the final four tonight, with the semifinals and final taking place on Monday.
