The Poker Lab Rat

Daniel Negreanu won a fourth WSOP bracelet and $205K by claiming all the chips in Event #20 the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. (479 entries)

Unlike some of the earlier events, this final table was full of players who had yet to win a bracelet (plus Negreanu) so the 33-year old Canadian was a solid favourite when everyone sat down.

The play was fairly winning with Negreanu and David Baker trading shots, and eventually it got down to three handed action with these two and Ugur Marangoz.

When three handed play got underway Baker began to struggle, taking several hits from Marangoz and even having his river bluff picked off by Negreanu with nothing better than Ace-high. A few hands later Negreanu rivered a gutshot straight against Baker, sending him out in 3rd place.

Heads-up play began with Negreanu taking a monster pot off Marangoz when he flopped a flush and got Marangoz to four-bet the turn and call another bet on the river. The pot all but devastated Marangoz’s stack.

A few hands later Negreanu raised all-in on a board of 5-K-5-Q-3. Marangoz threw in his few remaining chips and Negreanu showed 9-5 for three-of-a-kind. Marangoz couldn’t beat it and was eliminated in 2nd place (winning $126K).

Negreanu shook his opponents’ hand then thanked the fans for staying to watch, saying that having “home team advantage” helped him stay positive when he was short stacked during the middle stages of the day.