Daniel Negreanu hasn't won a live poker tournament since 2013, and he just might be one day away from ending the drought. The GGPoker ambassador reached the final table of PokerGO Cup Event #7, $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em, and has the third largest stack among the five remaining players.
The task won't be easy for the popular poker pro as he's chasing Ali Imsirovic, the hottest player in tournament poker this year. Imsirovic already has two PokerGO Cup titles in the past week, and eight total high roller victories in 2021. He's already the heavy favorite to win numerous awards, including Global Poker Index Player of the Year and the PokerGO Tour championship.
Difficult task for Daniel Negreanu
The 26-year-old Bosnian poker star will enter Tuesday's final table with 1,835,000 chips, nearly double that of any other stack. Alex Foxen, the two-time defending GPI Player of the Year, sits in second place with 1,010,000. And then Negreanu is third with 975,000 chips. Sergi Reixach (755,000) and David Coleman (675,000) round out the final table.
Only 35 players entered the next-to-last event of the PokerGO Cup, with the top five being paid. William Ichioka, who busted in sixth place at the hands of Imsirovic, finished on the stone-cold bubble and went home empty-handed. Following Ichioka's elimination on Monday, play concluded for the evening. The final six players will return to the PokerGO Studio on Tuesday at noon PT with the action on PokerGO starting at 1 pm.
Each of the remaining players are guaranteed at least $122,500, but the winner will take home $700,000. For Negreanu, the six-figure payout won't offset his numerous losses in recent years, which includes a $1.2 million heads-up defeat against Doug Polk. But getting a victory for the first time since 2013 could help "Kid Poker" build up some momentum and confidence.
Negreanu's last live poker tournament win recorded by Hendon Mob was at the 2013 World Series of Poker Europe in the €25,600 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller. The PokerStars ambassador at the time won €725,000 and his sixth gold bracelet on that day. Ever since then, he's struggled to capture tournament titles, although he does have some solid results on his resume.
Negreanu has a number of runner-up finishes over the past eight years, including two at the 2019 WSOP. In 2014, he finished runner-up to Dan Colman in the $1 buy-in WSOP Big One for One Drop, which paid just over $10 million. Winning Tuesday's PokerGO Cup event would put "DNegs" over the $43 million mark lifetime. More importantly, he would end a lengthy drought.
Featured image source: PokerGO app
