Though just 38-years old, Daniel Negreanu has been on the poker scene a long time. Once one of the “new school” group of up-and-comers, he may now be considered “old school,” or at the very least “gently-aged school.” Regardless, he has won scores of live tournaments in his poker career, but has never captured a major online title. That is, until this past weekend.
On Saturday, Negreanu won the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Event #39-H $5,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max event in dominating fashion. It was a relatively small field of just 180 players, but that isn’t necessarily unexpected in high buy-in, specialty event like this. That said, the field was tough, filled with the likes of Shaun Deeb, Ike Haxton, Justin Bonomo, Jason Mercier, David Baker, Joe Ebanks, and Steven Chidwick.
By his own account, Negreanu ran pretty hot, eventually making it to the final table with a significant chip lead. His 331,441 chips towered (virtually, of course) over the table, as the next closest player had just 216,766. When it got to heads-up, it looked academic, as Negreanu held 764,712 chips to FA_Morgoth’s 135,288. And it was academic; heads-up play lasted just five hands.
Negreanu took the blinds on the first three hands, then took a thick slice of FA_Morgoth’s stack on the fourth hand. On the fifth hand, Negreanu raised to 12,000 pre-flop and was called by FA_Morgoth. On the flop of 4♥-5♦-2♦, FA_Morgoth checked, Negreanu bet 12,000, and FA_Morgoth raised to 60,000, leaving just a smattering of chips behind. Negreanu put him all-in and FA_Morgoth called. When the cards were revealed, Negreanu showed J♦-9♠-6♦-3♣ for the nut-straight and flush draw, while FA_Morgoth had Q♣-7♣-6♥-5♣, giving him top-pair and an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river didn’t help FA_Morgoth and Negreanu took the crown along with $216,000.
Tweeted Negreanu after the win: “Won my first ever major online poker tournament. This last two months has been the sickest run of my career. So thankful and SO FUN!”
And what a run it has been. Coming into this online event, Negreanu had made the final table of three consecutive major live tournaments, starting with an April victory in the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) Main Event, a payday of over a million dollars. Earlier this month, he finished fourth in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final for $420,912 and then placed seventh in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, a $137,085 cash (the “official” final table was six-handed, but we’ll count this). Add to those a small-ish cash for a fourth place finish in a preliminary event at WSOP APAC and Daniel Negreanu has had a very nice 2013.
