Poker news | Oct 16, 2020
How Daniel Negreanu Lost a $100k Bet on the 2020 WSOP Online
By RTR Dennis
Daniel Negreanu has been one of the most-popular poker pros for two decades. His impressive tournament results are one of the biggest reasons why he’s remained so popular. Negreanu has earned over $42 million in live tournament cashes, which places in third on the all-time money list.
Unfortunately for the Canadian, though, the 2020 WSOP was held online. All 88 bracelet events took place over the internet due to COVID-19 concerns. 31 events were staged on WSOP.com, while the remaining 54 tournaments were held on GGPoker.
Negreanu is a solid online poker player. However, he’s more comfortable playing live poker, where he’s had considerable success.
Despite the strange circumstances of this year’s WSOP, Negreanu made a big bracelet bet. He wagered $100,0000 against Connor Drinan on which player would win a gold bracelet this year.
Details on How Negreanu Lost the $100,000 WSOP Prop Bet
As you can tell from the title, Negreanu didn’t win this wager. But it’s how he lost the $100k bet to Drinan that makes it so noteworthy.
Kid Poker made this wager with Drinan knowing that the latter is a superior online poker player. For evidence, Drinan became the first player to win five PokerStars SCOOP titles in one series earlier this year.
Despite Drinan’s internet superiority, both players fought valiantly throughout the 2020 WSOP Online. Each cashed in well over a dozen events while searching for a bracelet.
Both came up empty until the very end, though. It was only in the very final running tourney—Event #83: $10,000 Super Million$—that one player became a serious threat to win.
Event #83 was the last to finish up in this year’s series. Drinan was among the seven players to final table the $10k Super Million$.
Negreanu, meanwhile, watched closely and even joked about the irony of potentially losing on the last tournament:
On the bubble this guy had 2 big blinds now he is crushing the final table!
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) September 8, 2020
How sick would it be to lose the bet on the last event of the year! Good luck @ConnorDrinan I’m rooting for you to come a solid second 😂 https://t.co/dxuZOOfoTk
With the pressure on, Drinan’s championship pedigree shined through. He eliminated his final six opponents en route to a $1,423,048 top prize.
Of course, Drinan also collected the aforementioned $100,000 prop bet. Negreanu was a gracious loser, and congratulated the victor:
Congrats @ConnorDrinan I watched a little of the heads up and it was truly insane! https://t.co/MV2fjShG4p
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) September 8, 2020
What’s Next for Daniel Negreanu After 2020 WSOP?
Despite just losing $100k on the last WSOP Online tourney, Daniel Negreanu won’t be hurting too badly. He’s still a GGPoker ambassador and one of the best live tournament players in the game today.
Assuming the WSOP goes live by next year, he has a real opportunity to end his bracelet drought. Negreanu hasn’t tasted gold at the WSOP since 2013. Here’s a look at his gold bracelet wins so far:
- 1998 – $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em ($169,460)
- 2003 – $2,000 S.H.O.E. ($100,440)
- 2004 – $2,000 Limit Hold'em ($169,100)
- 2008 – $2,000 Limit Hold'em ($204,874)
- 2013 (Australia) – A$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event (A$1,038,825)
- 2013 (Europe) – €25,600 High Roller No Limit Hold'em (€725,000)
Negreanu plays in lots of WSOP tournaments every year. Again, he’s also one of the strongest live tourney players in the world. Therefore, it’s only a matter of time before he ends his drought and captures another bracelet.
For the time being, though, he’s got plenty on his plate with being a GGPoker ambassador and playing in other live tournaments. Negreanu also has large followings on both Twitter and Twitch.
He recently drew a ban on the latter for profanity laced tirades at the start of the 2020 WSOP Online. While livestreaming a session, Negreanu became incensed when somebody made derogatory comments about his wife (Amanda).
He’s back on Twitch, though, following a one-month ban. That said, Negreanu will likely be doing plenty of livestreaming from now until the 2021 WSOP.