Wynn Millions High Roller Event #2 Won by Daniel Negreanu for $216,000

The second Wynn Millions High Roller event concluded with Daniel Negreanu winning yet again as ‘Kid Poker’ continued his rich vein of form in the high roller events. Negreanu, who has won a total of $761,000 in the past four weeks in high roller events in Las Vegas alone, triumphed after an epic end to the tournament saw three players battling deep into the night in Sin City for the win.

Higher Entry Fee, More Players

With the entry fee increased to $15,000 for the second event, there were 40 entries in total, with 24 unique players including legends of the modern games such as Daniel Lazrus, Dan Smith, Julius Threadgill and Boris Akopov as the field widened with some new faces among the regulars at this level.

The ARIA High Roller series only concluded a few days ago, and Daniel Negreanu cashed in two of the three events, banking over $83,250 as he once again proved that his class is permanent on the poker scene in Las Vegas.

In a week where the poker world digested the schedule being revealed for the 2022 World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris, the high rollers got down to the action to battle for the lion’s share of the $600,000 prizepool.

Sergio Aido Loses on the Bubble

After the drama of Jake Schindler winning the opening event yesterday for over $166,000, the second event saw some fast-paced action as poker players looked to match the achievements of their preceding players and make their name rise up the leaderboard. Spanish player Sergio Aido was the unfortunate soul to bust outside the money — and PokerGO Tour points – as he busted in seventh place after two hours of bubble play. Just six players remained but all were in profit and could fight for the title.

Ali Imsirovic was the first player to bust for a score of $30,000 and some vital PGT points. The Bosnian-American is looking to go back-to-back in winning the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year title after his success in 2021 but would have liked to go further than a min-cash. Imsirovic’s pocket kings were unable to hold against Negreanu’s ace-king, which hit an ace on the flop to skittle one of the most dangerous opponents to stand in his way.

Sean Winter was the next to depart, winning $48,000 for his fifth-place finish when his short-stack shove with queen-five fell to Sergi Reixach’s pocket aces after a ten-high board. Winter was followed from the felt by Brock Wilson, who busted in fourth place for $66,000. Wilson’s ten-five suited couldn’t catch up with Ren Lin’s pocket sevens as they rode home to give the American what looked like a very strong lead three-handed.

A Trio of Troopers Fight into the Night

Building a lead in no time at all, Negreanu was desperate to seal victory.

Three players were left in the battle, but if anyone had been posed to pick the order as they kicked off the podium play, few would have succeeded. A short time after three-handed play kicked off, Lin held a big lead over Negreanu with 2.4 million playing 1.3 million and Sergi Reixach was low down in the pecking order with 250,000 scrabbling for the barest of chipstacks.

That all changed, however, as Sergi Reichach triple up with a full house against Lin’s nut flush and while Lin would lose his lead to Negreanu, it was hours later that he eventually lost his stack. Lin’s ace-six of diamonds was some way behind Kid Poker’s pocket nines and on a double-paired board, neither helped the American to see Canada’s finest make it to heads-up with a rough 2:1 lead over his opponent.

Building a 3:1 lead in no time at all, Negreanu was desperate to seal victory. His hopes were initially dashed as Reixach battled back to level stacks, but Negreanu’s post-flop aggression gave him back his lead.

Using it brutally, Negreanu shoved the button with nine-eight and was called Reixach with pocket fours. The first card out of the window was a nine and while Reixach saw a deuce, three and five all fall by the turn, giving himself hope of a straight draw reprieve, it was not to be. A king on the river gave the crown to Negreanu and the $216,000 top prize to boot, with Reixach happy to mop up the $144,000 runner-up prize.

Back to my winning ways and it feels good! 3am finish with all the chips in the $15k for $216,000 and 216 points towards the PGT leaderboard.

I’ll be in the Wynn Millions tomorrow after a late reg! Weee pic.twitter.com/ZDjmL31rep

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 3, 2022

The next Wynn Millions High Roller event takes place on Sunday, as the buy-in returns to $10,000 for the third of five No-Limit Hold’em events that take place in the world-famous Wynn Las Vegas poker room.

Photos courtesy of PokerGO, home of the PokerGO Tour, the Wynn Millions, and ARIA High Roller Series.