The high profile online and live tournament poker pro Daniel Negreanu had plenty of cause for celebration this week; in a historic announcement he was declared WSOP Player of the Year for a second time, and he won his sixth World Series of Poker bracelet in taking down the Euro 25,000 buy-in World Series of Poker High Roller event.
Twitter lit up with congratulatory messages from almost every big name in the game on the announcement that Negreanu had won the Player of the Year accolade for an unprecedented second time; he first took the title in 2004.
The achievement seemed to give Negreanu added momentum in the High Roller event, where he displayed outstanding skills to defeat a stellar final table that included Nicolau Villa-Lobo of Brazil; Philipp Gruissem from Germany; Canada’s Tim Adams; and US pros David Peters, Scott Seiver, Jason Koon and Erik Seidel.
With the departure of Philipp Gruissem at third for Euro 250,000, the heads up was set between the little-known Brazilian player Nicolau Villa-Lobos and Negreanu. Despite the disparity in their profiles and experience, the Brazilian gave a good account of himself, ensuring that the final confrontation was fiercely contested for over an hour.
However, Negreanu proved unstoppable, and the Brazilian had to be content with a creditable second placing and a check for Euro 450,000, leaving the main prize of Euro 750,000 to a triumphant Negreanu.