Poker Stories: Daniel Negreanu Battles for MTT Victory at the World Poker Tour

After days of play and eliminating many tables worth of players from the field, the stage was set for Daniel Negreanu and a handful of other poker elites to battle it out on the final table. The first prize for the 2021 WPT: $2.2 million, with about a million going to the runner up.

Negreanu came to the table as a clear favorite. Not only is he an all-star poker legend, but he also had the biggest stack. Here’s how the action went down.

Photo: PGT

A Big Swing

The action starts with former NFL pro Jim Hanna raising to 300k with KsJh and Negreanu calling with the dominated Kd9h. When the flop brings 6h7h7d, Daniel checks and Jim puts in the continuation bet for 350k. Daniel decides to call it off with no hand and no draw.

The bad news comes on the turn: the king of hearts, giving them both a pair of kings and a flush draw—only Hanna has the best of both of them. Jim bets out for 500k, and the commentators tell Daniel that he should be careful what he wishes for. Negreanu scratches his head and says “Oi, Oi, Oi!” as the crowd laughs.

“I’m gonna go all in,” he eventually declares. As soon as Hannah snap calls, Daniel laments, “whoops, pretty much dead here,” even without seeing the hand. Jim, meanwhile, laughs as he tells Daniel, “Pass the sugar baby!” The river brings the 6d and Jim Hanna doubles up through the chip leader.

The Final Push

After losing another hand to Hanna, Negreanu is battling for his life as the short stack. Looking down at KsTc, he decides to push it all in preflop for 1.6m chips. His opponent, Joe Hachem, has a pair of pocket fours and a tough decision. After much deliberation, Joe calls Negreanu with 60% equity.

Once they realize that this is it, Jim Hanna declares he had folded a pair of tens, giving Negreanu even less outs. Things aren’t looking great as they head to a flop of Ah2cQc. Negreanu lets out a sigh, knowing that he only has 37% equity at this point and that he needs a king, the remaining ten, or runner-runner clubs for the flush.

The Qd is the turn card, giving no help to either player and crushing the flush draw dream. After a good sweat, the dealer finally brings them to the river; with the 2d, Daniel Negreanu is out of the contest, taking home around $600,000 for his efforts but falling short of the W. Joe Hachem ends up taking the whole thing home.