The crowds - as crowds sometimes do - went wild. Whoops, hollers and chants of “Dan-iel! Dan-iel!” filled the room, as fans clamored to fill the background of Negreanu’s winner’s photo with raised fists and smiles. Daniel Negreanu has got the monkey off his back, winning his first WSOP bracelet in over a decade and cementing his status as a high-performing, top-level, elite poker player.
But not just any elite poker player.
Crowds don’t generally go wild for stars of the cardroom in the same way they do for stars of the field, court or stadium. Negreanu doesn’t just have followers, he has fans. Decades spent as the game’s foremost ambassador has seen to that. And now, those fans have a memorable tournament victory to celebrate.
And not just any tournament.
What makes the PPC so special?
The $50,000 Poker Players Championship (PPC) is a unique event at the WSOP. The Main Event may award the most prize money, and the $250K Super High Roller may have the most expensive entry fee, but for the elite poker pros there is a level of prestige that comes with winning the PPC which is hard to find elsewhere.
It’s a mixed-game, for one, bringing together nine variants from razz to no-limit 2-7 draw, PLO, hold’em (both limit and no-limit) and more, meaning all-round skills are essential for success. It’s also a five-day event, allowing plenty of time for the cream to rise to the top. And then, of course, it costs $50K to enter: Tourists need not apply.
“This is the tournament,” Negreanu told PokerOrg, “This is one where all the best players show up. The structures are very long and it’s a real grind to stay mentally sharp for five days. When you win this tournament you earn it. There’s no fluking it.”
The final day’s play
Five players made it all the way to the final day of the PPC, and truth be told it would not have been a huge shock had any of them won it. Here’s how they lined up at the start of the event’s final day:
- Chris Brewer, 10,425,000
- Daniel Negreanu, 7,675,000
- Dylan Smith, 4,000,000
- Bryce Yockey, 3,700,000
- David Benyamine, 850,000
Benyamine is a seasoned pro with a WSOP bracelet and two WPT titles. Yockey has two WSOP bracelets, the most recent of which he won just a few weeks ago. Smith is a winner on the WPT, the WSOP Circuit, and has a PCA High Roller win to his name. Chris Brewer has over $23 million in tournament winnings, with wins at the WSOP, EPT, WPT and the Triton Poker Series.
And then there’s Daniel Negreanu: top 10 all-time money winner, face of GGPoker, former face of PokerStars… to many, the face of poker itself.
The scene was set - literally - as the five survivors gathered on the main stage of the WSOP to play down to a winner.
Benyamine and Smith both fall to Yockey in razz
France’s Benyamine would be the first to hit the rail, and it wouldn’t take long, coming in the first level of the day.
Playing razz (7-card stud, played for low), in a heads-up pot with Bryce Yockey, Benyamine got all his chips in on sixth street, with one card to come. And that card would make all the difference.
Benyamine 
/
Yockey: 
/
Benyamine caught a useless 
on seventh street, for 9-8-5-3-2. Yockey, on the other hand, picked up an to make a marginally stronger 9-8-4-3-2. Benyamine was out in fifth, for $265,054.
Shortly afterwards, Dylan Smith would also get involved with Yockey in a razz hand, and end up following Benyamine out the door in similar fashion. Smith got the last of chips in on fifth street, behind, and couldn’t catch up. He took $363,914 for his 4th place finish, leaving Yockey, Brewer and Negreanu to battle on.
Trading blows
Yockey held onto the chip lead for a good period, with his opponents fairly evenly stacked behind him. However, Negreanu would ease away from Brewer and closer to Yockey, eventually drawing level with the latter in a hand of 7-card stud.
The two took turns to lead out, building a big pot. Yockey bet sixth and seventh streets, the latter of which Negreanu raised.
Negreanu: 
/
/
Yockey: 
/
/
Yockey’s kings up were no match for Negreanu’s straight, and the two found themselves level on 11M chips.
If it seemed like Negreanu and Yockey would cruise to heads-up, that was not the case. The three would trade chips and leads for another hour and a half before the next major development in this epic final table.
Brewer busts in cruel fashion
It seems many bad beat stories start with the words ‘pocket aces’, and so it proved for Chris Brewer in a round of no-limit hold’em.
With blinds at 100K/150K/150K, Brewer found 
in the big blind. Negreau limped the button and Yockey raised to 550K from the small blind. Brewer elected to call, as did Negreanu.
Yockey c-bet 600K on the 
flop, and Brewer raised to 2.3M, leaving himself just 325K behind. Negreanu folded and Yockey put Brewer in for the rest of his stack.
Yockey held 
for top pair and a flush draw. The 
on the turn was an instant killer blow, leaving Brewer with no outs to save him, but with a $519,158 payout for his run to third place.
Heads-up for the title and $1.1M
With two left, the story was the same as it had been all day; it could have been anyone’s. Yockey and Negreanu traded the lead multiple times, with Yockey probably shading it in terms of time spent in the driving seat.
A big, marginal hand in 7-card stud finally gave Negreanu a platform to shoot for the win with a big chip advantage. Both players made two pair, but Negreanu’s 
beat Yockey’s 
, and Negreanu finally had a lead of some significance.
When the end came the game was PLO and the blinds were 150K/250K/250K. Negreanu raised to 750K from the button, Yockey called and then checked the flop of 
. Negreanu c-bet 600K, Yockey check-raised to 3.5M - around half his stack - and Negreanu put him in for the rest.
Negreanu: 
Yockey: 
Negreanu’s trips were ahead but while Yockey had outs, he had hope. A club for a flush? An eight for a straight? Hope for Yockey was extinguished immediately as the on the turn gave Negreanu the full house, the win, a seventh WSOP bracelet and the Chip Reese Trophy. And that's not counting the small matter of the $1,178,703 in prize money.
For his impressive run to second place, Bryce Yockey takes $768,467.
"I’ve always wanted to be considered among the greats,” an emotional Negreanu told us after his win, “but when you look at the numbers it’s like ‘He doesn't win’ and it’s frustrating because sometimes you know you're doing everything right but the public doesn’t. They think ‘Oh, he must not be playing well’ but you don’t know, you don’t see what I went through for a couple of years. You don’t know the hardships. And now, they’re like ‘Oh, he must have done something different’ - well, yeah, I won some all-ins."
