Daniel Negreanu broke an 11-year bracelet drought last summer when he won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Now, he’s in a great position to win one in back-to-back years in the $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship.
Negreanu bagged a top 10 stack on Day 1 of the tournament, and surged to the top after Day 2, when he bagged 1,550,000, almost half a million more than Matthew Bienner in second.
Talking on his vlog shortly after bagging he said it, “feels like a good one to win.”
He’s in a great position to make that happen now. The 217-strong field has been whittled down to just five and Negreanu is third in chips but there’s not much between the top three. And there’s a familiar name above him in chips – Viktor Blom.
Negreanu is playing for the bracelet first and foremost, but he’s also playing for his $25K Fantasy side. This is the first year that Negreanu has drafted himself and he cost $108 — over half his total budget of $200 for a team of eight. This would be some way to show that his confidence wasn’t misguided.
We spoke with Negreanu straight after he finished for the night, around midnight.
'When you're in the moment, don't be thinking about the next one'
What’s it like to have yourself in the $25K Fantasy?
It’s crazy. Last year was the year I wanted myself and then they went to $132. I'm like, 'You guys are crazy'. This year $132 made sense because we had 24 teams and all of a sudden I was just paying attention. Someone said $107. I looked around, like, 'Wait a minute, nobody's saying $108?' And then nobody did.
I was like, 'Do you guys know something about me that I don't know?' That's what it felt like… it was a huge mistake to not have me go for more because of the way that the structure of these things work. And I'm also very, very good at poker.
Negreanu at the $25K Fantasy draft.Is making a run like this at the start of the series not only great for your fantasy team, but great for the series?
Oh yeah, it's always nice to get off on a good start, right, because then you really feel like you're in the Player of the Year race. You feel like you've got a good score to build from.
I did a good job of skipping the first two days. I was focused on the events I wanted to play, and this is only my third event and now we've got a good chance here to finish the job tomorrow.
What do you think about the boom in fantasy poker? You got the most numbers ever, ODB is the biggest ever, and we’ve got our Fantasy Freeroll.
I'm thankful because I run this thing. But it’s great to see what ODB’s done with it too. Thousands of people can have a chance for $500 to have a sweat for the whole summer.
I know the PPC meant the world to you when you won that one. You finished second in this twice. Is this the one you really, really want now?
I want every one of them, but it is kind of annoying to come second twice in this one, and I feel like this is a really good opportunity to close. I’ve got a good stack, so I don't want to miss. I've learned when you're in the moment, don't be thinking about the next one. It's like, this is it, do this, win this, you know, that's it.
Who stands between Negreanu and his eighth bracelet?
Viktor Blom is a strong contender, and has a slight lead on Negreanu heading into the final day's play.Including Negreanu, five players remain in the $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship. Here's who he's up against.
- Ryan Bambrick: 3,500,000
- Viktor Blom: 3,300,000
- Daniel Negreanu: 3,200,000
- Hunter McClelland: 1,400,000
- Ofir Mor: 1,100,000
Viktor Blom
Career winnings: $5,886,461
Negreanu has been shadowed through the tournament by Viktor Blom, better known by many as 'Isildur1'. The quiet Swede cashed 10 times at the 2024 WSOP, and made four final tables with a third place in the $100K High Roller alone netting him $1,311,091. He has never won a WSOP bracelet.
Ryan Bambrick
Career winnings: $399,200
Bambrick is an Omaha specialist – nine out of his last 10 cashes are in Omaha variants, and he finished 72nd in the $1,500 version of this tournament last week. He won his one WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 PLO bracelet in 2018. He was the start of Day 2 chip leader and ended Day 3 with the most as well.
Hunter McClelland
Career winnings: $120,824
McClelland only has $120,824 in live earnings and, outside of the WSOP, tends to play tournaments that cost hundreds not thousands. But he likes this tournament; he played it last year when Scott Seiver won it and finished 27th for $20,309. He’s already secured his first six-figure cash and will now be looking to spin his short stack up to a bracelet.
Ofir Mor
Career winnings: $1,058,860
Ofir has only cashed in four tournaments since 2020 but he scored in two Omaha events last summer. A second-place finish would see him smash his biggest ever cash of $266,835.
