Daniel Negreanu is a familiar personality in poker circles; his name is in the Poker Hall of Fame. At the last PokerGO Cup running event, he broke a tournament title record that had lasted close to eight years. As if this was not enough, the poker legend won the players of the series title from the event. When he returned for the PokerGO tournament, his intention was to walk away with the cup, which he did. This was not however evident from the start because he did not manage any cash awards in the first five poker matches.
For a tournament that had a total of 8 games, the 47-year-old poker pro proved that his talent was not time bound because he managed to turn his fortunes around even when some people thought it was too late. The 6th event, a no-limit hold’em high roller with a buy-in of $25,000 offered the much needed relief to the six time WSOP bracelet winner. This level had a total of 35 recorded entries battling it out for a price of $350,000. Negreanu ended up with much more than this, including an extra career title.
Making his remarks at the close of the tournament series, the champion of the PokerGo Cup series of 2022 offered a message of gratitude to the management of PokerGO for putting together the online poker event. Revealing his thought process during the tournament, Negreanu admitted that he had begun feeling frustrated when he did not win anything for a long time into the game. He credits his win to Jeff Platt for the role he played to encourage him to attempt a win even when he felt that the odds were against him.
Unknown to Platt, he boosted Negreanu’s morale when he told him that a win in any of the subsequent poker matches would still make him the Cup winner. Event #6 was kind of difficult for the champion because he came in with new energy but had no chips to match – he had to rebuy everything but luck was on his side and he won.
Poker has been a lucrative income earner for Negreanu who has so far accumulated $44,688,983 from various wins. This figure places him at third position after Bryn Kenney ($57,450,921) and Justin Bonomo ($59,182,835). Other prizes that the third place poker lifetime earner has won from his involvement in competitive poker include 336 Card Player Player of the Year points – the first qualified score in the year. In addition to that, it also served as the first cash for the player earned from the 2022 PokerGO Tour.
With the 210 points earned in this tournament, Negreanu was able to move to the top 20 bracket of the race. Before he embarked on the final day action, the poker guru was position four based on chip balance. With only five players left on the New Jersey poker table, Negreanu’s chances were better than ever.
The sixth player, Jeremy Ausmus, had been ousted the previous night by Vikenty Shegal. When the action began, the pack had Brock Wilson right at the center but he was not to last long because his pocket aces received a whooping from Sean Winter’s AHeart Suit3Heart Suit. In the face-off against winter, Negreanu topped a preflop race to double his balance; this would cause Stephen Chidwick, 2019 Card Player POY award winner, to drop to the bottom position in chip count balance. Chidwick faced his ouster, leaving the table to four players.
By adding his prize award of $96,250, Chidwick’s lifetime poker award is nearly $38.2 million. By this time, Negreanu had regained his composure and he took the lead during the three-handed final table action. It was now Winter’s turn to drop to the bottom but that did not mean he was going home yet. He survived the heads-up courtesy of a preflop cooler that drove Shegal to his end. He walked away with a prize of $140,000.
Negreanu had a chip balance of 4,540,000 by the time he settled in his round against Winter who only had 720,000 to his name. The battle lasted a short while during which Winter managed to accumulate a few big blinds unto his stack balance. This was until the rising of the event’s final hand. The blind range for this round was 30,000-60,000 while the ante stood at a big blind level of 60,000. Negreanu threw in a suit comprising of A-club and J-club which Winter responded to with a Q-club and 10-club suit, raising the ante to 180,000.
Winter was compelled to call the 660,000 balance from his stake and this meant a limp shove for Negreanu. The board read a hand of A-diamond: 9-spade: 8-diamond: K-heart and 10-heart suit for Winter against Negreanu’s two aces. This is all he needed to lock in the tournament title and corresponding prize award. As the second place winner, Winter received $227,500 for his stamina and effort.
For the multiple WSOP bracelet winner, this latest win is the fifth in a series of final table finishes that he has so far participated in as the year clocks 2 months in. This translates into a total of $511,900 accumulated from POY earnings earned along the way. Due to this performance, Negreanu is currently holding the 14th position according to overall achievement and has made it to the fifth position of the PGT race for points.
The showdown at the final table was action packed as demonstrated by the large differences between player earnings. While the top player and winner of the table pocketed $350,000 with 210 points, the fifth place winner, Brock Wilson was awarded $61,250 with a player point balance of 37.
Final Thoughts
When the winner of a poker championship is Daniel Negreanu, even the opponents are excited at sharing a table with a legend. It is something to do with the strategy but even after following the action so many times, some players just love to get involved.
