Dnegs comes close to winning the tourney, falling in the final heads-up battle
Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu could be finding his rhythm as he adjusts his strategy. He finished second behind Philip Sternheimer in Wednesday’s $10,200 buy-in PokerGO Tour Dealer’s Choice event at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.
Forty-seven players paid entry to the tournament, with seven finishing in the money. The five returning for Day 2 included Phil Hellmuth, who was the first to go home in fifth place for $37,600.
Negreanu lost more than $2 million last year, including almost $800,000 at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP). At the end of the year, he vowed to make some changes in 2024, including entering fewer events and getting more sleep, which has worked so far.
Negreanu started with a moderate chip lead over Sternheimer at Wednesday’s final table before eventually facing him heads up. Maxx Coleman followed Hellmuth to the rail after losing to Negreaunu in Omaha hi-lo to secure $49,350 for fourth place.
Adam Friedman was eliminated in third place for $68,150 after going all in preflop in Pot-Limit Hold’em against Sternheimer. He was holding A-Q against his opponent’s A-K and got no help on the board.
Sternheimer began heads-up play, leading DNegs in chips with 4,180,000 vs. his 2,865,000. However, it didn’t take much time to turn that around. Negreanu briefly took a 2-1 chip lead in a Pot-Limit Hold ’em hand after cracking Sternheimer’s pocket aces with his two pair.
Sternheimer then won back-to-back big pots to regain the lead and quickly finish off Negreanu to take the $164,200 top prize and increase his live tournament winnings to over $2.4 million. DNegs earned $103,400 for his seventh cash in 2024 and second runner-up finish.
