Late comeback lifts Daniel Negreanu to 11th PokerGO Tour win

Daniel Negreanu overcame a large deficit in heads-up play to win his 11th career PokerGO Tour title and $182,850 in Event #3 of the PGT PLO Series at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. 

Negreanu beat James Chen in heads-up play after starting the day with the chip lead. Chen, who has made every final table of the series so far, eliminated several players to build a dominating stack for the final two, but Negreanu closed the gap quickly and withstood a few more obstacles before he claimed his second victory of 2025. 

Negreanu and Chen clear the deck

The final day started with the final six players after 159 entrants turned out for the second $5,100 buy-in of the series. Negreanu entered the final day with the chip lead, followed by Xiaoxiao Song and Bryce Yockey, while Eric Blair, Dylan Weisman, and runner-up Chen made up the rest of the final six. 

Negreanu parlayed a big Day 1 into total victory.

All six players played through the first two rounds of the day without an elimination before Yockey was the first one to run into real trouble after a clash with Weisman. 

Yockey's fortunes turned sour and he moved down to the new short stack after his flopped set was no good when Weisman flopped a nut flush. He hit the door in sixth place a few moments later. 

Negreanu, who had given up the top spot in the opening round, reclaimed the chip lead in five-handed play before Song was eliminated in fifth place. Blair followed in fourth and Weisman fell in third — both to Chen — to set up a heads-up battle where Negreanu had just four million to Chen’s 15 million. 

Kid Poker a hard target

They entered heads-up play with blinds at 125K/250K/250K and Negreanu quickly moved into the chip lead in a dizzying display of variance after a big hand with a pair of pocket aces against Chen’s kings.

The final two exchanged the lead with smaller pots with chip stacks relatively even before Negreanu had a chance to put it away. 

Negreanu bet pot on a board of and Chen called for the rest of it with the better hand: . The trailing hand, Negreanu’s , had 23 outs to end the tournament, but the river’s was not one of them and they were back to near even again. 

Eventually, Negreanu pulled away for the final time and Chen got it in with pocket queens and some change. Negreanu had kings with an ace in his hand and a cowboy on the turn to seal his 11th PokerGo Tour victory. 

PGT PLO Series Event #3 final table results

^{Images courtesy of PokerGO/Antonio Abrego.}