Daniel Negreanu entered the final table of Thursday’s World Series of Poker Online Event #22 with 946,800 chips. Negreanu had just under 30 big blinds in the $600 Knockout tournament, and the opportunity to win his first WSOP bracelet since 2013. But despite a strong final table appearance that included a brief stint as the tournament chip leader with four players remaining, the pro eventually had to settle for a third-place finish.
Negreanu earned $19,851 for his third-place finish and an additional $1,000 for the five bounties he collected along the way. He was eliminated by Anthony “Lastbullet” Kennedy, who went on to win the tournament and its $46,796 first-place prize.
Poker fans were treated to an insight into Negreanu’s thoughts and emotions throughout the tournament as the six-time WSOP bracelet winner live-streamed the entire event on his Twitch and YouTube channels. Negreanu talked through all of his decisions, including on his final hand when his Q♠9❤️ lost to Kennedy’s A♣Q❤️ after a queen and two fours came on the flop. “Min-raise, get it in. We’re not folding off of 13 bigs,” Negreanu said after putting in the raise.
Negreanu’s quest for a seventh WSOP bracelet continues
Daniel Negreanu finally cracked an eight-year tournament drought earlier this month when he won the $50,000 Event #7 of the PokerGO Cup. That $700,000 first-place prize and his eventual PokerGO cup series title helped take the edge off of recent defeats to Phil Hellmuth in three consecutive High Stakes Duel matches and to Doug Polk in a heads-up challenge that cost him $1.2 million over 25,000 hands.
Negreanu’s cold streak included an incredible 10 runner-up finishes from 2013 through 2019. With his overall tournament slump now busted, the next step for Negreanu is to break through for his seventh career WSOP bracelet. He has been stuck at six since 2013 with these six wins:
List of Negreanu WSOP Bracelet wins
Year | Tournament | Prize |
1998 | $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em (Event #9) | $169,400 |
2003 | $2,000 Limit S. H. O. E. (Event #23) | $100,440 |
2004 | $2,000 Limit Hold'em (Event #15) | $169,100 |
2008 | $2,000 Limit Hold'em (Event #20) | $204,874 |
2013 | A$10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event | A$1,038,825 |
2013 | €$25,600 Mo-Limit Hold'em High Roller | €725,000 |
The slump could have easily ended before it began. Negreanu played his way down to heads-up in both the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship and the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop events in 2014. That was before coming up just shy of his seventh bracelet in both of those events. Negreanu had a third-place finish at the WSOP in 2015 and 2018, and four top-six finishes including a runner-up finish in 2017.
Negreanu scored an incredible 16 cashes at the 2019 World Series of Poker and made it to heads-up in both the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event and the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller event. The 2019 series was a clear success by any measure other than bracelet count, but that’s a pretty important measure for bracelet-hungry Negreanu.
GGPoker events up next for Negreanu
In his most recent YouTube video, Daniel Negreanu announced his plans to play in virtually all of the upcoming GGPoker WSOP Online bracelet events from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. GGPoker announced the full online schedule earlier this week:
Negreanu also announced that he would be live-streaming his events every day except for Sundays, which he said are generally more hectic with multiple tournaments going on at once. With 33 WSOP bracelets up for grabs from August 1 through September 12th, Negreanu will get plenty of cracks at that elusive seventh bracelet.
Featured Image Source: Flickr: World Poker Tour