2024 Champ Negreanu Loses 80%

With late registration one of the hottest topics of the 2026 World Series of Poker, Daniel Negreanu made sure to avoid the debate entirely in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

KidPoker was in his seat from the very first hand, however ten minutes later, he had lost more than two-thirds of his stack.

The seven-time bracelet winner and 2024 Poker Players Championship champion suffered one of the roughest starts imaginable Sunday after paying off Chris Brewer in a massive pot during the opening level, watching his 300,000 starting stack shrink to 60,000 before some players had even settled into their seats.

No Bad Beat for Brewer This Time

As reported by PokerNews’ Connor Richards:

Negreanu was in a bright mood as this event kicked off — greeting new table edition Esther Taylor with an “E F***IN’ TAY!” — but he was left silent after a big no-limit Hold’em hand against Brewer.

In No-Limit Hold’em, Qinghai Pan started the action by raising to 3,000 in the hijack as Brewer called on the button. Negreanu three-bet to 18,000 in the small blind, and Pan folded while Brewer called.

Negreanu continued with a bet on the flop of J♠K♠8♦ and Brewer called. Negreanu then bet 38,000 on the 2♠ turn and Brewer again called.

The 7♦ river completed the board and Negreanu bet 60,000. Brewer sat still before smoothly moving out a stack of green 25,000 chips for a raise to 175,000. Negreanu thought it through and called, only to muck as Brewer turned over 9♠8♠ for a flush.

Brewer discussed the hand with the table afterward, revealing that he didn’t like playing a big pot so early and may have folded if Negreanu raised on the river, despite only having about 22,000 behind. But he couldn’t blame Negreanu for paying off his flush.

“I think I’m the most likely to not have it,” he said.

Negreanu Bounces Back Quickly

Fortunately for Negreanu, the story didn’t end with Brewer dragging a mountain of chips in the opening level. After seeing his stack crater, Negreanu wasted little time mounting a recovery and had worked his way back to roughly 190,000

He scooped John Rogers in Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better with aces and an eight-seven low. Then back in No-Limit Holdem, he pushed Joao Vieira off of a pot on the river. As saw by reporter Brett Slezak:

DNegs opened to 4,000 second-to-act and Scott Seiver flatted in the small blind. In the big blind, Vieira squeezed to 20,000, and only Negreanu called.

Both the Q♦3♦2♠ flop and the 4♠ turn would check through, albeit slowly. Some chips finally went in on the 8♠ river, as Vieira led for 17,000. Negreanu then announced a raise to 65,000, and Vieira laid it down after a minute’s tank.

At the time of writing, 36 players had ponied up the $50,000 buy-in, with Chance Kornuth, Naoya Kihara, Luke Schwartz, Brian Rast, and Dan Cates all in action. Be sure to follow along with all the latest from the Poker Players Championship in the PokerNews live reporting hub.

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game.

Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for three Global Poker Awards for his writing.