Although Daniel Negreanu is one of most cordial professional poker players you’ll ever come across, the runner-up in terms of all-time career tournament earnings recently wasn’t quite as content with his tournament results.
After a series of relentless bad beats, Negreanu displayed some uncharacteristic emotion, slamming both his headphones and his chair onto the floor. Although the Team PokerStars pro is certainly accustomed to bad beats after years of professional play, the string of back-to-back emotional roller-coaster rides was just enough to send Negreanu over the edge.
Beginning Day 2 of Event #27 with a massive chip lead over the remaining field, Negreanu felt very comfortable with where he stood in relation to the rest of his competition. But as most seasoned tournament veterans know, at any moment, the tides can turn dramatically.
They did for Negreanu.
According to his Twitter page, Negreanu had an adversary on his direct left in the event that was causing tremendous angst. Playing pot after pot, the villain was putting a lot of pressure on Negreanu’s play during the latter stages of the event. Although Negreanu was able to adapt, it was the consistent string of good fortune for his enemy that sent him through the roof.
In Negreanu’s final pot of the tournament, his tournament rival managed to hit a one-outer to send Negreanu home packing. After another player at the table folded the 
(which would later be a crucial out), Negreanu held the 
against Tam Hang’s 
on a 
flop. With just over 20,000 remaining, Negreanu clearly got all of his money in, and with the open-ended straight draw, Hang called. Needing only to dodge a king or an eight, it was nearly certain that Negreanu would double-up and keep his tournament hopes alive. However, the 
came on the turn to bring straight-flush outs for Hang, and sure enough, the 
fell on the river to give Hang the nuts and an unbelievable bad beat story to tell about Daniel Negreanu.
After the beat, Negreanu nearly drop-kicked the table in disgust, and later muttered a few discouraging words to his opponent after leaving the table and exiting the tournament.
While it should’ve been the most important topic of conversation about the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship, the eventual winner, Daniel Idema, took down over $378,000 for the victory and bragging rights considering that he took down Isaac Haxton, Nick Shulman and Barry Greenstein in a star-studded final table.
Add in the fact that just a year ago, Idema was the runner-up in this event, his victory in 2011 speaks volumes about his incredible poker talent and determination.
Results from a few previous 2011 WSOP events:
Event #25, $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo
While certainly not the biggest attraction on the marquee at the 2011 World Series of Poker, many noteworthy players came out to partake in the $1,500 buy-in event.
One of the biggest names was Mike Sexton, whom eventually landed in second place, as he fell to the champion Chris Viox who won his very first WSOP bracelet. If Sexton had managed to win the event, it would have been his second bracelet on the biggest stage in tournament poker. However, he’ll have to live with the second-place prize money of $123,925.
Viox was incredibly relived after his victory, as he’s made three final tables in previous events at the WSOP and has failed to cash them in for a gold bracelet. On this day though, he wouldn’t be denied.
His experience playing poker for over 10 years showed throughout the event, and it turned itself into a payday of $200K.
Event #28, $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Andy Frankenberger, a former stock trader, who just came off of a big victory at the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker event, now solidifies his place in poker history by winning Event #28 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
The fields throughout the 2011 WSOP have been very steady, and this reins especially true when referring to the relatively small buy-in No-Limit Hold’em events. These types of events have been a huge draw thus far for both professional players and amateurs, and this time around, a pro happened to take it down.
Frankenberger, 38, recently quit his job as an Equity Derivatives Trader, so that he could solely focus his time on becoming a well-rounded poker player. It seems to have worked out well for him, as he managed to defeat a pool of 2,500 players, that included several big names.
Uniquely, he attributes much of his poker success to his aptitude when it came to stock trading. Understandably so, the uncertainty of making the correct decision at both the poker table and within the stock market are drastically similar. But Frankenberger is very capable of using all of the information at hand.
“In derivatives trading it’s all about risk management,” Frankenberger mentioned in a late interview with PokerListings.com. “That’s how I look at poker, it’s all risk management. Unless you have the nuts, you never know if you have the best hand.”
Other big winners in the 2011 WSOP:
Other big name players were involved in hotly contested events, as online phenom Chris “Genius28″ Lee weaved his way through a field of 433 players in the first ever 10-game event at the WSOP. Lee won $2,500 10-game mix for $254,955.
Meanwhile, James Hess played a great game against a surprisingly large field in the WSOP Seniors event, and won over half-a-million dollars for his effort.
Sam Stein, a regular cash game player and experienced Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) connoisseur, finally added a major tournament victory to his resume by winning the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $420,000. This was his first WSOP bracelet, but the 23-year-old pro doesn’t plan on keeping this number in tact for very long.
Stay tuned to High Stakes Report for more WSOP updates.
