Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu hasn’t won anything significant for a long time and there were many in the poker community who were questioning whether Negreanu was past his best. The Canadian poker pro silenced his critics once again by winning Poker Masters Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $178,200 on September 12.
Final Table Action
A total of 66 players put down the $10,000 buy-in to play Event number 5 which took place at the PokerGO Studio located at the ARIA Resort & Casino. With a $660,000 prize pool, the top five players were set to walk away with six figure payouts.
Four of the top five players were from the United States and the odds were in favour of a U.S player winning Event 5. The four U.S players were Jack Daniels, Jeffrey Trudeau, Vikenty Shegal and Nick Petrangelo. The first player to be eliminated was Trudeau who collected 53 points and $52,800 for his fifth place finish.
Daniels went next and took home $69,000 and 66 points. Shegal had to settle for a third place finish and received $66,000 and 86 points. The final action came down to an interesting battle between Negreanu and Petrangelo. In the end, it was Petrangelo who fell and exited in second place for 132 points and $133,000. Negreanu finished in first place with 181 points and $178,200 in prize money.
Negreanu Wins First Poker Masters
The prize money isn’t all that big when you compare it to some of the pots that Negreanu has won over the course of his career. However this win is special for him because it is the first time that he is winning an event at the Poker Masters. This was the second biggest win for Negreanu in 2021 after his win in July when he took down the PokerGO Cup Event #7: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
Negreanu won $700,000 for his first place finish and showed the poker world that he is still one of the best poker players in the world today. His win at the Poker Masters will give him a lot of momentum going into the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) which starts on Sep 30 at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Doug Polk Might Have Indirectly Inspired Negreanu
You wouldn’t think that a poker player as good as Daniel Negreanu would need any motivation at the poker table. The truth is the best poker players in the world are human and the pressures of not succeeding at the poker table can get to the best players in the world.
Prior to winning the PokerGO Cup Event #7, Negreanu had not won any event in the last 8 years. While he was very much aware of that fact, Doug Polk decided to make a YouTube video of the same just to remind the poker community that Negreanu did not have any wins in 96 months.
Polk posted that video on July 11 and a couple of days later Negreanu won his first even in eight years and pocketed a cool $700,000. That win gave him confidence and he’s followed it up with another win now at the Poker Masters.
Negreanu admitted that he won over $20 million in the last eight years even though he did not win any event outright. While it was great to keep finishing in the money, the pressure of being the bridesmaid and not the bride started to get to him. Now that he has two big wins in 2021, it looks like he is preparing for another run at WSOP gold.