There were 170 players left in the $26K WSOP Paradise Super Main Event - all of whom were in the money - when Daniel Negreanu looked down at 
in the big blind. With almost 700K in the pot, thanks to a min-raise and a call ahead of him, Negreanu shoved his remaining chips - around 1M - into the pot and got a call from Justin Carey on the button with 
.
"Come on baby,” implored Negreanu, “let me win a flip one time."
Whoever ‘baby’ was, they weren’t listening. The runout of 
went Carey’s way, Negreanu punched the table and bounced out of the tournament, the $6M prize up top now permanently out of reach.
Here’s how it went down:
“I let myself experience the experience,” said Negreanu in an exclusive chat with PokerOrg shortly after his painful exit, “ I don't bottle it up. I don't pretend that I'm good. I'm p*ssed off! I'm going to be p*ssed off. I'm going to allow myself to experience it because you'll notice - whatever it is in life that you deal with - if you put it off and hold it in, it doesn't go away. It just lingers and manifests in different ways.”
It should come as little surprise to hear Negreanu so in touch with his emotional side. His recent online activities - vlogging each day of the series, as well as launching a new weekly podcast alongside his wife (the Mania Podcast) - show the world’s most famous poker player enjoying a prolonged period of self-reflection. He’s been analyzing his hands, his game, his relationships and his life in full view of the public for a while now. He knows his own mind, and is largely happy to let us in on what goes on in there.
“It's been a grind, working hard,” he says when we ask about the WSOP Paradise series as a whole. “You know, it is a great beach town and you bring your kids and have a lot of fun. For me, it's been work. I've been in here every day, grinding my butt off, playing against the wizards, doing my best.”
So, with a costly and frustrating exit from the Super Main Event fresh in his mind, what’s the best way to move on? “I'd rather just blurt it out, give myself three hours, go to my room, take a nap, play a little chess, and then, you know, get back to work. The grace to feel.”
We were more than happy to give him the forum to blurt it out. We can’t confirm if he managed to take a nap and play a little chess, but we can tell you Negreanu showed up soon afterwards in the $50K NLH High-Roller.
From the 101 entrants who also played the $50K yesterday, Negreanu is one of 29 who made it through to Day 2, his stack of 845K good for 12th place. Back to work.
Daniel Negreanu bagged and tagged for Day 2 of the $50K High Roller. Just 36 remain in $50M GTD Super Main Event
The High Roller quickly became a haven for many of the big names who inevitably tumbled out of the Super Main, on a Day 3 which saw 90 survivors of online Day 1s join the 207 players who had navigated the tourney so far in the flesh.
Anyone seeing those online qualifiers as fresh meat was in for a rude awakening. Those 90 players did not consist wholely of plucky online qualifiers taking their only shot at glory, but featured some of the most fearsome tournament pros around. Adrian Mateos, Christoph Vogelsang, David Peters and Ole Schemion were among the late arrivals, as was Australian Michael Addamo, who brought with him a modest stack of 3.9M and spun it all the way up to be the end-of-day chip leader with over 85M chips.
Much of that impressive chip lead came about as a result of a big three-way clash Addamo won against Tom-Aksel Bedel and commentator’s nightmare Alisson Piekazewicz. The latter got his stack in preflop with 
, while Bedel held 
and Addamo the 
.
The flop of 
gave Addamo the nut flush and Bedel top set, and as you might expect the two quickly got the rest of their chips in. The 
runout didn’t pair the board, and Addamo emerged with a commanding lead.
Michael Addamo looks on unfazed as Tom-Aksel Bedel prays to the poker gods for a board-pairing card. With 36 players remaining, everyone is guaranteed a payout of at least $140,900. Those still chasing the big money when play resumes at noon - with a big blind of 800K - include Italy’s Mustapha Kanit, the UK’s Liv Boeree (the last remaining woman in the field), Canada’s Sorel Mizzi and Austria’s Matthias Eibinger.
Justin Bonomo, current #2 on the all-time money list is still armed and dangerous with 22.4M chips, while the iconic Chris Moneymaker has a top 10 stack of 34M.
PokerOrg is out there on the tournament floor for the full duration of the series, so make sure to check our WSOP Paradise Instant Live feed for all the latest.
WSOP Paradise $26K Super Main Event - top 10 chip counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Addamo | 85,350,000 |
| 2 | Marcelo Aziz | 60,000,000 |
| 3 | Pablo Melogno | 54,325,000 |
| 4 | Christopher Nguyen | 49,350,000 |
| 5 | Yinan Zhou | 49,000,000 |
| 6 | Sirzat Hissou | 39,275,000 |
| 7 | Ren Lin | 37,850,000 |
| 8 | Joonhee Yea | 36,400,000 |
| 9 | Sebastian Toro | 36,250,000 |
Is that guy OK?
If you’re wondering what they look like, a couple of our roving reporters were, ahem, accidentally captured on camera during one of Daniel Negreanu’s personal vlogs.
Disclaimer: no reporters were harmed during the filming of this clip.
At PokerOrg we’ll always go above and beyond to improve the experience for poker players everywhere. And here’s proof.
As WSOP Paradise hits the home stretch, be sure to keep a window open for the Instant Live feed, where you can find chip counts, payout info and great stories from the floor you won’t find anywhere else.
In the meantime, you can relive the events of Day 3 courtesy of the WSOP stream, below.
