Poker Stories: Daniel Negreanu’s World Series of Poker, Part 5
Poker Legend Daniel Negreanu starts Day 40 of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) over $1M down for the series, and begins his morning with a reflection. “The main event is going on right now, and if we were in it, then obviously our energy level would be high,” he says. “But instead we found ourselves in a $1500 Razz tournament, which is difficult.”
He heads to the casino to buy into a $1500 PLO bounty tournament, determined to gamble and have fun. Even after losing a big pot, he keeps a smile on his face, saying “we’re gambling, we’re dancing!”
After losing big pot after big pot where he was a 2-1 favorite, however, cracks start to show. “This is getting a little tiresome at this point,” he fumes. “I get all my chips in and just fucking lose… Yeah, I’m running like dogshit. Beyond dogshit, like dirty ass dogshit.”
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Turning the Tide
Day 41 begins with whipped-cream topped oatmeal, and it turns out to be a crazy one. In addition to playing a live 2k Poker Hall of Fame bounty NLHE tournament, he brings along his laptop so that he can also play an online 1k and a $7,777 at the same time.
Suddenly, he starts winning. His focus is strained, but he stays tight and gets into the money in all the tournaments.
“This is the heat that I’ve been waiting for all summer!” he gushes after winning a huge flip. “This is insane! Look at this, we won another flip! So much more fun, isn’t it?”
Although he busts out of the live event and the 1k, he’s happy that he has time to focus on the $7,777 because it has the biggest prize pool. With 10 players left, he’s 3rd in chips.
At the final table, he goes all-in with JJ against A8 and loses when the flop brings a 5. Still, he comes in 5th place, good for $88,000, meaning that at the end of the day, he’s only down $995,667 for the series: finally under a million dollars.
The Streak Continues
On Day 42, Dnegs decides to play the $1500 NLHE/PLO. He loses a tight pot where he flops a straight and loses to a flush that comes in on the river, but he decides to rebuy.
That’s when the momentum really picks up. He gets it all-in pre-flop with AT, and he convinces a guy holding K7 to call because he knows he can bruise the buff guy’s ego by calling him chicken and making clucking sounds at him. That’s one way to double up.
He keeps winning big pots, growing his stack to put himself in a good position for the rest of the tournament.
“This was a good day,” he concludes. “Feels like we’re turning the corner. Feels great, very few exceptions.”
Just another day experiencing the ups and downs of a poker pro.
