Subscribe to AIP newsletter
Sing up for exclusive casino bonus, offers, and the latest news directly in your inbox.
Daniel Negreanu is perhaps one of the best-known poker players in the world. The world knows about his epic cold streak over the last two years. Fortunately, that streak appears to be over after Negreanu won Super High Roller Bowl VII.
Negreanu outlasted a 24-player field of the world’s elite to earn $3.31 million. This is the second-largest live tournament score of his career. Better still, it shows the world that Negreanu can still win at a high level.
Day 1 of Super High Roller Bowl VII kicked off Wednesday at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. A field of 24 entrants put up the $300,000 buy-in to create a prize pool of $7.2 million. Daniel Negreanu was on fire from the start, as he was one of only two players to finish the first day with over 1 million in chips.
Negreanu finished Day 1 as the chip leader, with Mikita Badziakouski right behind. Other big names making it to day two included Justin Bonomo, Alex Foxen, Cary Katz, Jason Koon, Seth Davies, Ben Tollerene, and Nick Petrangelo.
Thursday was moving day for the event as the field was cut down to the final table of five. Nick Petrangelo, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Justin Bonomo, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Daniel Negreanu were the five to return on Friday to play for the money.
Only the top four players received a payday in this event, so one player would be the bubble boy. Unfortunately, that proved to be Orpen Kisacikolglu. He started the final table as the second-shortest stack but ran A-Q into pocket queens from Andrew Lichtenberger. This resulted in Kisacikoglu being the bubble boy and everyone else locking up at least $720,000.
Justin Bonomo started four-handed play as the short stack and eventually ran pocket eights into pocket jacks from Andrew Lichtenberger. The jacks held, and Bonomo received a payout of $720,000. Lichtenberger was the next player to hit the rail. He was all-in and dominated with K-6 against the A-6 of Daniel Negreanu. An ace on the flop was enough to eliminate Lichtenberger and give him a payday of $1.15 million.
At the start of heads-up play, Negreanu has more than a 3-to-1 chip lead over Nick Petrangelo. Petrangelo was never able to get any headway against Negreanu. In the end, he was all-in with K-5 against the Q-7 of clubs for Negreanu. A seven hit the flop, and that was enough to give Negreanu the title.
Nick Petrangelo had to settle for second place and $2 million in prize money. Daniel Negreanu won Super High Roller Bowl VII and $3.31million. This was the second time Negreanu had made heads-up in the Super High Roller Bowl. He was heads-up in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl but lost to Justin Bonomo.
According to Negreanu, in 2018 he had a bunch of friends railing him, and he decided to play very loosely to hang with them. This time around, he told his friends to stay home so he could focus on winning. This was the right play, resulting in his first SHRB title.
If you have been following the career of Daniel Negreanu, you know it has come with massive ups and downs. This time around, Negreanu has been on a massive two-year losing streak. One of the big stories of the 2022 World Series of Poker was Negreanu losing over $1.1 million during the series.
A lot of Negreanu’s losing streak has been variance. However, this didn’t stop him from trying to improve his game. In a post-win interview, Negreanu stated that he has worked diligently on his game this year and felt he was more prepared for the Super High Roller Bowl than anyone else in the field.
His preparation paid off as he earned his career’s second-largest live tournament score. The question is whether this will be the end of an epic losing streak or just a brief respite. If Negreanu has proven anything, he can bounce back from adversity, and we expect this recent win is just the start of great things for the Poker Hall of Famer.