During event #55, Canada's Daniel Negreanu showed some of the flare he's known for. His reads are just as sharp as they were in old highlight reels, but not even Kid Poker can avoid the difficulties of pocket Jacks. It can be a tricky hand to play at the best of times, but this is the $250k Holdem event – with the largest buy-in of the entire series.
We collected four of Daniel's interesting hands from the high-roller event.
A Key Hand in the WSOP's Priciest Event
Daniel Negreanu: This is the key hand right, we're up to 2.6 million, we're doing good now. I raise with the Ace of Clubs, King of Hearts to 80k under the gun.
Shawn Winter, two seats over, again big chip leader right now, makes it 240. Folds around to us, this is where we just get it in right? No, didn't, I called instead.
Flop is . I check, and he checks.
Turn's a and everything inside me says he just made three Jacks. He bets 340, I call.
River is a , I check, and he bets 750. I go, "You have three Jacks right? You have three Jacks, right?
But like, how I have way too much hand here. I have a hand I'm not even supposed to have because you're supposed to 4-bet it and get it in. So I have like, you know, I have top-top here, maybe, maybe he has the same hand sometimes. But I really felt like Jacks, so I called. What do you think he had?
"You're so good man," Winters said as a consolation prize. "Set of sevens?"
"No. Ace-King."
The Second Encounter with Pocket Jacks
With the blinds at 40k/80k, Daniel looked down and this time, the Jacks were his. He opened to 160k, Hook with called, and it went to Davies.
His dominated Daniel, even covering hearts as a bonus.
Davies 3-bets to 520k, asking for around a quarter of Negreanu's stack. After some thought, DNegs put the rest in, totaling 1.88 million.
Hook mucked his cards and Davies said, "Alright, I'm probably dead."
Even after seeing the Queens, Daniel believed his outs were coming.
"I can feel a Jack coming. I do, I really do. I don't know about a Queen, but I feel a Jack coming."
It wasn't there on the flop.
But on the turn, Daniel's premonition came true.
After some dead money and Davie's chips, he was back in 4th place on the 8-handed table.
A Classic Soul Read From the 2024 Negreanu
From early position, Daniel opened 2x to 200k and got calls from Hook ( ) and Suvarna ( ).
The flop looks great for Daniel, but even better for Hook with middle set.
Facing about a third-pot bet, Hook clicked it back, making it 550k. Daniel called.
As if the poker gods wanted this clip on YouTube, the was sent down from the heavens. Hook led for 700k into 1.8 million, which Daniel was even more committed to calling now.
3.2 million going to the river. Daniel has 2.1 million left in his stack and Hook has 4.6 million.
The sealed the deal for the American, and of course, Daniel was quickly facing an all-in.
Immediately, he exclaimed, "Pocket Eights all day, twice on Sunday."
Daniel flicked the cards away, and Hook respectfully told him, "Good fold."
Negreanu scoffed. "I almost folded the flop."
A Third Encounter with Pocket Jacks
Later in the 250k high-roller event, Daniel was dealt a cursed and beloved hand. With some no-so-subtle foreshadowing, Negreanu showed the Jacks song again before the next clip.
Not in the money yet, but close to it, Negreanu is all-in vs Seth Gottlieb. The Canadian gave his opponent a short, but honest speech while he thought.
"You know it's always Jack-plus here, right? Because it's old DNegs here. What do you have, Ace-Five or something?"
"Better than that," Seth replied. "Okay, I call"
"I hope you have something bad!"
"It's not great."
After the runout gave Seth the nuts on the turn, Daniel jokingly needled, "You should have folded! I told you I had pocket Jacks!"
Seth is no amateur though and knew where he stood. The American player has over $3 million in total live earnings, plus a win at last year's Triton in London, plus a runner-up finish against Fedor Holz in Jeju.
With that, Daniel's buy-in ROI on Day 26 hit -$870,597. Santhosh Suvarna went on to win the event, which has the largest buy-in of the entire series. For it, the poker pride of India received a massive $5,415,152 prize from the $18.6+ million prize pool.
To see other winners of the 2024 World Series of Poker events, visit our updated list.
