In what was arguably the most talent-laden final table of the 2019 World Series of Poker so far, two Poker Hall of Famers squared off on Wednesday night to determine the champion of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event. In the end, it was John ‘World’ Hennigan who got the best of Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu to capture a well-deserved sixth bracelet.
Bracelets, Bracelets Everywhere
To say that there was some talent on the table for determining this championship would have been a massive understatement. Negreanu led the way with just north of 1.5 million chips and only saw David ‘ODB’ Baker in the millionaire’s club with him (1.07 million). The rest of the pack were in dangerous territory as none of them had more than 23 big bets in their stacks. Former WSOP POY Frank Kassela, Hennigan, Chris Tryba, David Singer and Mikhail Semin rounded out the table, with only Semin not a member of the WSOP bracelet club amongst the group of players left (another bracelet winner, Frankie O’Dell, was eliminated in eighth place on Tuesday and received credit for a WSOP final table finish).
Negreanu looked to set his leadership of the tournament in concrete, but Baker wouldn’t let him get too far out ahead of him. Baker would do this through dropping Kassela and Tryba from the tournament in seventh and sixth places, respectively. Hennigan’s stack was very flexible in the early going, dropping as low as 400K at one mark before he would significantly rebound.
With so many talented players on the table, the chips were moving but players weren’t getting knocked out. After Negreanu eliminated Singer in fifth place, his rolled-up sixes besting Singer’s Queens up, the remaining four players would see a series of doubles. Semin would do it twice to stay alive, but the chips and cards would finally catch up with both Semin and Baker.
Semin, who fought from the short stack the entire final table, was first to go at the hands of Negreanu, his diamond flush draw only catching a pair of Queens on Seventh Street to fall short against Negreanu’s gated Aces and Seventh Street Aces up. Negreanu would also administer the killing blow to Baker, besting Baker’s hidden fours with a pair of sixes, to move to heads up with Hennigan holding more than a 2:1 lead.
Long Battle for the Gold
Both Negreanu and Hennigan were riding a hot streak at this point and it was simply a matter of who didn’t get the cards. Initially it was Negreanu, but Hennigan would fight back and take over the lead a half hour into heads up play. The duo would then see-saw the chip lead back and forth, with neither backing down and both showing excellent skills.
For over two hours Hennigan and Negreanu would spar for the championship before Hennigan would begin to get better cards and Negreanu couldn’t catch up. Even with this said, it STILL took Hennigan another hour to dismiss his fellow Poker Hall of Famer from the event. On the final hand, Hennigan made Aces up by Sixth Street (blanked Seventh Street) and Negreanu needed to find a spade or another four to go with his pair of fours on Sixth Street. Negreanu dramatically squeezed Seventh Street before reluctantly flipping it up to be a blank as well, sealing the tournament for Hennigan and his sixth WSOP bracelet win.
1. John Hennigan, $245,451
2. Daniel Negreanu, $151,700
3. David ‘ODB’ Baker, $104,416
4. Mikhail Semin, $73,810
5. David Singer, $53,621
6. Chris Tryba, $40,066
7. Frank Kassela, $30,817
8. Frankie O’Dell, $24,419*
(* – eliminated on Tuesday, part of official WSOP final table)
Hennigan was quick to congratulate his opponent on a tournament well played. “It was a very tough duel, especially for me. He (Negreanu) played so well, he really did not get what he deserved there,” Hennigan noted in the post-tournament interview with WSOP staff. “He made every right decision and it was just bad luck for him there at the end.” Alas, that is what the game of poker is built on…someone has the fortune of the day with them and, in the case of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event, that someone was John Hennigan.
