Daniel Negreanu Busts WSOP Main Event with Kings against Aces

Image courtesy of PokerNews.com

Daniel Negreanu’s hopes of another deep run in the World Series of Poker Main Event were dashed last night after running into that most painful of coolers, his pocket kings meeting pocket aces on day 1e of the flagship event.

Negreanu was one of 797 players to pony up the $10k buy-in for the biggest event of all, the fifth starting flight also including former champions Joe Hachem and Scott Blumstein.

It wasn’t to be for the most famous name in the game, however. Looking to match or exceed his double 11th place runs in 2001 and 2015, Negreanu hit a rather brutal stumbling block.

His 5-bet all-in with the red kings was called by Ayman Mahfoud with the black aces, and the flop all but sealed the GGPoker ambassador’s fate.

♥ ♦ ♠ ♣

Daniel Negreanu: K♦ K♥
Ayman Mahfoud: A♣ A♠

Flop: 6♠ A♦ 8♣
Turn: 9♠
River: 7♣

Chris “BigHuni” Hunichen was another prominent name in the mix yesterday, having recently recovered from a well-publicised bout of Covid and a subsequent Twitter spat with Justin Bonomo.

That was due to Hunichen not informing fellow players that he’d contracted the virus shortly after the $50k PPC, but yesterday he was quick to inform fellow players that he meant business.

A busy day at the table saw Hunichen KO Ryan Leng, another pro much in the news after a heads-up duel with Jungleman Dan Cates in that PPC tournament.

A late big hit saw Hunichen thrown back into the chasing pack, but he’ll be around for day two, which can’t be said for the likes of Maurice Hawkins, Dan Smith, Jon van Fleet, or Lily Kiletto, who all bust out.

Among those who made it through was Joe “Aussie Joe” Hachem, the 2005 Main Event champion breezing through with triple his starting stack.

2017 champ, Scott Blumstein, made it through too, while Max Greenwood joined his brothers, Sam and Luc, who had survived an earlier day one flight, into day two.

Dong Kim, Andre Akkari, Brandon Adams and Robert “The Grinder” Mizrachi also survived and they will all return for day 2cef tomorrow, Wednesday.

The final starting flight, day 1f, runs today although last-minute arrivals will still be able to enter as late as level 2 on either of the day 2 flights.

Day 1e Top 10 chip counts