After failing to cash in five for five of the first PokerGo Cup events Daniel Negreanu was hesitant about entering PokerGO Cup Event #6, a $25,000 buy-in event.
But enter it he did, and he had much to celebrate as a result, as it wound up being the first liveament he’d managed to take down for first place in a lean five year stretch of close calls and runner-ups.
Negreanu shipped it for first place in this one, and a prestigious event it was too, surpassing major factors such as Stephen Chidwick and Sean Winter (who finished runner-up for $227k) to secure the victory and take down the event along with a sweet $350,000 payday.
“I’m not gonna lie, I actually genuinely have to thank Jeff Platt because after the tournament, Event #5, I was so frustrated that I was building chip stacks and dominating the early levels but didn’t have a single cash to show for it, so I was just done,” Negreanu said.
“I didn’t know if I could take it anymore. I’m in the gym and Jeff texts me and says, ‘You know if you win one of these and the $50k that you can still win the PokerGO Cup.’ In my head, I was like, ‘So, you’re saying there’s a chance?’ As soon as I heard that, I thought, ‘All right, let’s do this. Let’s give it one more shot,’ and I did… Who knows, the poker gods are weird.”
The decisive hand saw Negreanu complete the button with A♣J♣, and Winter make it 180k to go (with 15bbs, 900k behind). Negreanu quickly shoved over and Winter made the call, to face the bad news of suit domination as he tabled Q♣T♣. A harmless board of A♦9♠8♦ K♥ T♥ rolled off to seal the deal for Kid Poker.
This pure victory for first in a tough high stakes event early in the year may propel the Kid to play even more volume live than he had planned, and it’s our guess we’ll see lots more to come from him at final tables in the months to come.
Well played, Kid Poker!
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Image courtesy of PokerGO.com
