Daniel Negreanu Wins Inaugural PokerGO Cup

Daniel Negreanu had achieved every thing he may to place himself within the place to be topped the inaugural PokerGO Cup Champion: he cashed 4 occasions through the eight-event collection, accumulating $996,200 in earnings and securing his first match title in almost eight years. The 46-year-old poker professional was eradicated from the ultimate occasion of the high-stakes competition in brutal vogue, along with his pocket aces being cracked by the pocket eights of Sam Soverel. After that, Negreanu may do nothing however watch from the sidelines and root on Cary Katz whereas he battled Soverel heads-up. If Soverel have been to return out on high, he would surpass Negreanu to win the PokerGO Cup participant of the collection factors race in a photograph end.

Katz was in a position to win the heads-up showdown. While he had secured the title and a seven-figure payday, Negreanu was the one who was probably the most excited. His cheers might be heard from the sideline through the broadcast of the ultimate occasion. Katz’s victory meant that Negreanu had formally received the factors race to turn into the first-ever PokerGO Cup champion. He earned $50,000 in added prize cash for popping out on high.

“I’m a nerd, big time. When I was a kid, I used to take wrestlers and pit them against each other, roll dice, and one wrestler would win. I would keep stats on their tournament results, for like the ‘player of the year.’ I did that when I was eight, nine years old, so I love this kind of stuff,” Negreanu told PokerGO reporters after all was said and done. “Winning a tournament is awesome, but winning a player of the series is so much more involved. You need to have repeated results and stuff like that, so it’s huge for me.”

Negreanu earned $230,000 for his fourth-place end within the remaining occasion of the collection that was in the end received by Katz. Had his pocket aces held up, he might need added a number of hundred thousand {dollars} extra to his collection complete of simply shy of $1 million in cashes.

“It was a bittersweet day because I busted and I didn’t win the million dollars, and I busted in an ugly fashion, but ‘El Jefe,’ Cary Katz, came through for me and got the job done,” Negreanu stated. He went on to reward Katz’s achievements as a poker participant, saying, “He’s good. He’s not a [recreational player]. Everyone says, ‘Cary Katz, he’s a leisure participant,’ however he performed in opposition to a area in a $100,000 buy-in the place there was not a single participant who didn’t establish as knowledgeable poker participant, outdoors of Cary.”

Negreanu’s largest rating of the collection got here within the penultimate match on the schedule: a $50,000 buy-in excessive curler. He topped a area of 35 entries to earn his first reside match victory since October of 2013. Negreanu had cashed in 144 occasions within the intervening years, cashing for greater than $22 million within the course of, however had not secured a title for two,819 days. Negreanu ended that streak with a bang, and took dwelling $700,000 because the winner. Earlier within the collection he had completed eighth in a $10,000 buy-in no-limit occasion and sixth in a $25,000 buy-in excessive curler.

As a results of his success throughout this collection, Negreanu elevated his profession match earnings complete to $42,370,255. The six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and two-time World Poker Tour champion solidified his maintain on the third-place spot on poker’s all-time cash checklist, with greater than a $4 million lead over his nearest competitors in fellow Poker Hall of Fame member Erik Seidel ($37,936,451).

Negreanu completed with 537 PokerGO Cup factors, giving him a 40-point margin of victory over runner-up Ali Imsirovic, who received two titles through the collection. Katz positioned third within the standings, whereas Soverel in the end completed sixth after failing to safe the ultimate title.

Here are the ultimate high ten standings within the PokerGO Cup factors race:

Photo credit score: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.