One year removed from a rough summer, Daniel Negreanu is fighting his way back to within striking distance in the Player of the Year race — sort of — and he’s doing so with large field event success.

At the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP), the Poker Hall of Famer lost $1.1 million and was never in contention for Player of the Year. He isn’t really in contention yet this year, but he isn’t too far off from getting to that point.

Is the Poker Legend Heading in the Right Direction?

Negreanu is currently deep in Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with one of the top stacks. The tournament started with 1,355 entrants and he’s already wrapped up his sixth cash of the summer.

His past four cashes have all come in events with over 1,000 players, including a 99th place finish for $2,773 in the $300 Gladiators of Poker, which had 23,088 entrants, second most in live tournament history.

For “DNegs” to work his way into Player of the Year contention in the PLO event he’s currently competing in, he’d need a top five finish. Even with that, he’d still be in quite a deep hole compared to the top performers Jason Simon and Chad Eveslage. But a few more deep runs in the next couple weeks would change that, if he can reach the PLO final table.

Negreanu won POY in 2004 and 2013, the last year he won a bracelet, and momentarily won it in 2019 before the WSOP caught a scoring error and determined Robert Campbell was the true winner.

There’s no doubt that Negreanu’s summer has been ho-hum thus far, but he is quietly having some success in small field events. It could be his ticket to profitability at the 2023 WSOP and also to get back into the Player of the Year race.

Entering Day 17 of the series, Negreanu is down just over $400,000 overall. If he were to take down the $1,500 PLO tournament, he’d erase about 75% of that deficit — first place pays $298,192. A cash on top of that in the $250,000 Super High Roller, which kicks off Friday, would put him in the black.

The summer is still young. We still haven’t reached the midway point at the 2023 WSOP and won’t do so until early next week. For Negreanu, he has yet to bring value to Team Noori in the WSOP $25k Fantasy Draft given only Shaun Deeb received a higher bid. But if can reach Friday’s final table, it could be the start of what turns out to be a great summer for the GGPoker ambassador.

At the time of publishing, with 45 players remaining, Negreanu was one of 11 players above 1 million in chips. Josh Arieh, Robert Mizrachi, and John Racener are also among those still competing for the bracelet.

Follow Negreanu’s Run in the $1,500 PLO Tournament

The 2023 BetMGM Poker Championship, which took place inside the ARIA Resort and Casino as well as the PokerGO Studio, saw Michigan’s Leo Taffe best a 1,026-entry field (including 94 BetMGM Poker qualifiers) to claim a $560,442 top prize.

He followed in the footsteps of Joey Weissman, who won the inaugural edition of this event in 2022.

2023 BetMGM Poker Championship Final Table Results

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team was on-site throughout the tournament to provide live updates, and during that time we captured some interesting hands. Here are some of the best.

Leo Taffe Steamrolls His Way to BetMGM Poker Championship Title ($560,442)

Colpoys Sits Down and Scoops Four-way All-in

On Day 1b of the tournament, reporter Kirk Brown caught a big hand in Level 5 (300/600/600). That is when Dan Colpoys sat down with a fresh 40,000 starting stack when he became involved in a massive four-way all-in preflop.

After the pots, were calculated, the hands were tabled as follows:

Opponent 1: 10♥8♥
Opponent 2: Q♠Q♦
Opponent 3: K♠K♥
Dan Colpoys: A♣A♦

The flop of A♠J♠9♠ gave Colpoys top set of aces but of course, it had to be a sweat as Opponent 1 was open-ended and the other two players both had spade draws.

Lucky for Colpoys, the board run out clean with the 2♥5♣ and he scooped the whole thing to rocket him up to 135,000.

See full results from the 2023 BetMGM Championship here!

Miller and Lavenburg Flushed Out on Bubble

On Day 2, Kirk Brown caught another interesting hand in Level 16 (4,000/8,000/8,000) on the money bubble. Raul Martinez and short-stacked Adam Miller got all the chips in preflop on the stone bubble and after the other tables completed their action the cards were tabled.

Adam Miller: K♠Q♣
Raul Martinez: 9♥3♥

The flop came out 9♣K♥10♥ for a huge sweat, as Miller had the superior pair but Martinez also had a flush draw to go with his three. The turn 10♠ took away some of Martinez’s outs but the 6♥ on the river was a gut punch to Miller as it gave his opponent the flush to eliminate him.

Across the room, another all-in-hand was unfolding:

Johann Ibanez opened to 16,000 from under the gun before Michael Lavenburg three-bet to 44,000. Ibanez called.

On the Q♥6♥4♣ flop, Ibanez checked and Lavenburg continued for 25,000, leaving around 250,000 behind. Ibanez moved all in as the big stack and was quickly called.

Michael Lavenburg: AxQx
Johann Ibanez: 10♥7♥

Coincidentally, Ibanez took a chunk off Lavenburg earlier on with the same hand and had the chance to do the same again. The J♣ turn was a brick but Ibanez made his flush on the A♥ river to oust Lavenburg.

Since both of these players were eliminated at the same time, they split the 128th Place min-cash for $2,396 each.

Good Run for Kipnis

In the same level, Jason Kipnis informed the team of his bust out. He relayed that he got it all in preflop against Paul Gunness who covered.

Jason Kipnis: AxKx
Paul Gunness: AxQx

The flop came out Ax10x10x to give both players an ace with Kipnis in the lead, and the turn 3x changed nothing, but the Qx on the river gave Gunness superior two-pair to eliminate the former MLB player.

Agarwal Hero Calls for Tournament Life

On Day 3, it was Level 22 (15,000/30,000/30,000) when, after checking through the 6♦Q♦K♠4♣ turn, Anuj Agarwal and Mike Vanier saw the river fall the 7♦.

Agarwal was first to act and he bet 125,000 into the pot of around 400,000 but then Vanier shoved all in, covering his opponent.

Agarwal then went deep into the tank, using all six of his time banks for this decision. As he reached the end of his clock, he set out a stack of chips and made the call, putting himself at risk.

Vanier did not like this call and flipped over J♣10♣ for a missed straight draw and jack-high, to which Agarwla jumped up and proudly flipped over K♣9♣ for just a pair of kings to win the massive pot.

Taffe Puts DeVore to the Test

On Day 4, it was Level 29 (100,000/150,000/150,000) when Taffe opened to 300,000 under-the-gun with K♠K♦ and Vanier made the call to his left with 6♠6♣. The action folded around to Sundiata DeVore who woke up with J♥J♣ and puts in a three-bet to 1,100,000.

Taffe then clicked it back to 1,900,000 and DeVore went into the tank before making the call and the two players went to a flop of 10♠9♣4♣.

DeVore checked over to Taffe who then continued for 700,000 and DeVore made the call.

The turn came out the 4♠ and DeVore checked again to Taffe who then moved all in to cover.

DeVore burned through all of his time banks before he finally decided to make the correct fold, awarding the huge pot to the chip leader.

Executive Editor U.S.

Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

The PokerStars Summer Festival is underway with two months of action-packed poker and casino festivities for PokerStars US players in New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania running through the end of July.

Among the headlining festivities is Summer Stacks – a fantastic poker tournament series for low to mid-stakes players with buy-ins ranging from $10 to $100 from June 9 to June 26.

With 100 events on each of the PokerStars NJ-MI and PokerStars PA networks and $2.75 million in total guaranteed prize pools, there are plenty of offerings for players from those states to join in on the fun.

Through the first 17 events on PokerStars PA and the first 17 events on PokerStars NJ/MI, there have been over 13,000 total entrants across the opening 34 total events. With $574K in guaranteed prize money in those tournaments, that amount’s been smashed with $658K up for grabs in those early events.

Here’s a look at some of the series’ highlights so far.

Summer Stacks in Full Swing

Summer Stacks Event #12: $30 NLHE [Progressive KO, Sunday Warm Up] had $5K GTD in PA and $7.5K GTD in NJ/MI. Both those amounts were smashed, with 380 entrants forming a $10,374 prize pool in PA for more than double the guarantee, while a 479-entrant field generated a $13,076.70 prize pool on the NJ/MI platform.

“HuddyHeff2020” took the lion’s share in PA for $742 plus $1,348.98 in bounties, and “whynot138” took the top prize in the NJ/MI version for $907.33 plus $1,300.33 in bounties.

One of the first highly anticipated events of the series was Summer Stacks Event #13: $100 NLHE [Sunday Special – Sunglasses Event], featuring an $80K guarantee in NJ/MI and a $70K guarantee in PA.

The NJ/MI platform saw a whopping 910 entrants flock to the virtual felt to generate a prize pool of $83,538 paid out to the top 127 places. “Soular861” finished atop the standings following a three-way deal to earn $11,114.22.

The PA version had a small overlay with 684 entrants fighting for a piece of the $70,000 prize pool paid to the top 95 places. “jchambs26” claimed the top prize of $11,026.33 following a heads-up deal.

Assorted Early Summer Stacks Winners

With events running through June 26, there’s still time to get in on the excitement with hundreds of thousands of dollars in guaranteed prize pools on the way. Additionally, players can win exclusive merchandise as a “trophy” in select events, including the Main Event.

The $100 Main Events will be two-day tournaments starting on June 25th, with a $100,000 guarantee in Pennsylvania and a $125,000 guarantee in the merged market of Michigan and New Jersey.

Upcoming Summer Stacks Series Highlights

Bonus Bonanza & More

Bonus Bonanza runs June 13-19 and will offer 100,000 free spins to players in Michigan, 100,000 free spins to players in Pennsylvania, and 10,000 free spins to those in New Jersey.

All you need to do to grab a piece of the promo is opt in and wager at least $10 on slots during the week to complete the challenge. The number of bonus spins awarded to each player at the end of the week depends on how many players complete the challenge.

Head over to PokerStars blog for updates with more information on additional Summer Festival events and chances to win some epic prizes in the coming weeks.

Just a few days ago, the Horseshoe and Paris Las vegas was abuzz over David “ODB” Baker’s incredible comeback from two big bets to win the $1,500 Razz event.

John Monnette would like his friend Baker to hold his beer.

After an incredible heads-up duel with Christopher Chung to conclude Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw that saw Monnette come back from half of one big bet, the mixed game specialist has claimed his fifth World Series of Poker gold bracelet and the $145,863 first prize.

Monnette becomes the 35th player to win their fifth WSOP bracelet, joining Josh Arieh and Brian Yoon who earned their fifth earlier in this year’s WSOP.

“It means a lot, that’s why we’re here in these tournaments, just battling. Nothing’s like it; nothing brings the energy that the WSOP does. You get the best players all playing together, battling to just get the bracelet.”

Known as one of the best mixed-game players in the world, Monnette’s fifth bracelet comes in his fifth different poker discipline, a fact that’s not lost on him.

“It’s kinda cool, yah. The no-limit deuce, I felt that was one of my better games, when I got that one, it was really cool, and then the hold ‘em one was pretty awesome because I just grew up playing limit hold ‘em… and then this one, 2-7 is a game I just played a ton like 15 years ago pre-Black Friday. It was kind of cool to get back to the roots, with the last two [being] Limit Hold ‘em and Triple Draw, games that I just grinded for years.”

John Monnette’s Five WSOP Bracelet Victories

The Day’s Action

Initially, it appeared that it might be a somewhat short day given how fast the first eliminations of the day came, with a third of the remaining 18 players sent to the rail before the first break, including bracelet winners Carol Fuchs (16th – $5,848) and Tom Schneider (13th – $7,222), along with RunGood Poker Tour founder Tana Karnchanakphan (15th ($5,848)

Among the next eliminations before the final table was Louis Hillman, who entered as one of the shortest stacks, but managed to survive multiple all-ins to ladder up to 10th for $9,141. Allen Kessler fell in ninth and Benny Glaser in eighth place for $11,849 each, but not before playing a memorable pot that saw Glaser break the best hand on the final draw to ultimately double up Kessler.

Once the final table of seven was set, it was time to distribute the real meat of the $696,870 prize pool. Michael Rodrigues was the first to fall in seventh place for $15,722, followed by Ryan Hughes in sixth for $21,342. But from there, the eliminations came to a standstill until after dinner break.

The first post-dinner bust out was James Williams, whose friendly demeanor, strong southern drawl, and unique name for number one or a wheel, ‘The Chicken’, lived on for the rest of the tournament with multiple references to the Arkansas native’s signature hand name.

Shortly thereafter, Josh Damm was the next to hit the rail in fourth place, leaving the three most accomplished players remaining in the field, Monnette, Chung, and Patrick Leonard to battle for the bracelet.

Chung held over half the chips in play at that point for a lead he wouldn’t relinquish until heads-up play, leaving Monnette and Leonard to duel for the right to play him for the bracelet. Ultimately a critical clash between the two put Leonard on the short stack, and despite his best efforts and several near-comebacks, Leonard fell in third place.

Now it was time for what became an epic heads-up clash.

An Incredible Heads-Up Tilt

Not long into the over two-hour-long match, Chung would relinquish his chip lead to Monnette before the duo traded it back and forth for a bit. Chung then regained firm control, to the point of having Monnette down to that half of one big bet and all in three times, but Chung couldn’t out-draw Monnette with a final card to finish him off each time.

From there, Monnette regained his stack and took the lead back from Chung. The final scheduled level of the day concluded with Monnette holding a 3-1 chip lead, and the players opted to play one more level to try to crown a champion.

Monnette would then complete his epic comeback approximately twenty minutes after that final break, making an eighty-six to capture the title and bracelet number five in incredible fashion.

Four words from Monnette captured the feeling of the match perfectly.

“It was just absurd.”

Monnette continued, “At that point, [under one big bet] there’s only so much you can do. The deck just kind of decided. If the hands were flipped it would have been the same thing.

Number Five For His Family

While this win was special for Monnette because he joins the five-timers club and it came in his fifth different poker discipline, the champion made it clear that, above all, his family made it possible and are the most special reason of all.

“All the bracelets mean something, and I’ve got two little ones now that are friggin’ absolutely awesome, my daughter Willow and my son John, and my wife Diana who’s just been so, so, so great. Poker’s always been fun, and it still is fun, but having that at home is so awesome. It means the world, and I just want to say thank you to all of them.”

Monnette continued to say that this fifth bracelet is going somewhere very special, as is number six when he gets it.

“It’s dedicated to my son because he’s the fifth too. I’m John Edward Monnette the fourth, and he’s the fifth, so this one’s for my son, and Willow, my daughter I don’t want her to think I’ve forgotten about her. She’ll get the sixth.

With beautiful sentiments like that, it sounds like the man lovingly known as ‘Angry John’ may have to change his nickname to ‘Family John’.

This concludes our coverage of this event, but stay close to PokerNews for continuing coverage throughout the rest of the 54th World Series of Poker from here at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

888poker runs some incredible multi-table tournaments throughout the week, but from June 19-26, the value in some of those events is nothing short of incredible. Why? Because 888poker is running a week-long promotion called the Summer Sale Week.

As the name suggests, the Summer Sale Week is a week-long promotion where you can enjoy a massive discount on some of 888poker’s most popular tournaments. There are 17 events taking place, each with their usual buy-ins slashed in half, yet the juicy guarantees remain the same. Those guaranteed prize pools add up to $300,000, meaning the Summer Sale Week could be your best chance yet of winning big at 888poker.

Your first chance to play in a Summer Sale Week tournament comes on Jun 19 when the $10,000 Summer Sale Monday Big Shot shuffles up and deals. Usually, entering this event would set you back $215, but you can now play in it for only $109, thanks to the Summer Sale Week promotion.

If you have ever dreamed of playing in the $320 Tuesday PKO Rumble and claiming the lion’s share of the $12,000 prize pool, June 20 could be your best chance of realizing those dreams because it will only cost $160 to enter!

Perhaps the best value Summer Sale Week tournament of them all is the $100,000 Summer Sale Mystery Bounty Main Event, which only costs $55 to enter on June 25. Playing for a slice of a guaranteed $100,000 for only $55 is great in its own right, but even more so when you realize that this tournament often overlays when the buy-in is $109! Can you afford not to play the Summer Sale Mystery Bounty Main Event?

It is not only high-stakes tournaments that are seeing their buy-ins halved because there are plenty of $11 buy-ins too.

888poker Summer Sale Schedule

You could be playing in the $55 buy-in $100,000 Summer Sale Mystery Bounty Main Event for free by tuning into the 888poker Twitch stream on June 19. The Twitch team is giving away five $55 Main Event tickets, so fire up the stream and see if you can clinch a free Main Event ticket.

You Can Now Earn Up To 50% Rakeback at 888poker Permanently!

Check Out 888poker’s Online Tournament Schedule

While playing in the Summer Sale Week events, why not check out the PokerNews Online Tournament Calendar and see what other 888poker tournaments there are? It is free and easy to use, and customizable too!

Grab Your 888poker Welcome Bonus

Those of you reading this article that already play at 888poker can jump into a cash game and starting building up your rakeback pot. Those without an account can download 888poker via PokerNews, and help yourself toa chunky welcome bonus.

Making a deposit with the bonus code “Welcome100” grants you a 100% up to $1,000 bonus on your first deposit. $10 of the bonus money releases into your playable account balance each time you reach 100 Bonus Points; you receive two Bonus Points for each $1 of rake you generate at the cash game tables.

There is something special about seeing a poker player get their hands on a World Series of Poker bracelet; it never grows old. Day 16 of the 2023 WSOP at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas saw five players become poker champions and receive the most sought-after piece of jewelry in the game.

Benjamin Ector took down Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $406,403 and some poker gold. Seventeen players returned for the third and final day, and it was Ector who came out on top, defeating Adam Swan heads-up.

A cool $2,576,729, the largest single prize awarded at the 2023 WSOP so far, is now with Jans Arends after he battled his way through a stacked final six in Event #29: $100,000 High Roller. Three of the finalists became instant millionaires thanks to the $8,997,750 prize pool. Adrian Mateos finished in third for $1,142,147 before Arends resigned Cary Katz to the $1,592,539 runner-up prize.

Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw crowned its champion on Day 16 of the 2023 WSOP. John Monnette left 17 opponents in their wake on the final day’s action (from a field of 522 overall), and captured $145,863 plus his fifth bracelet.

Day 1 of Event #32: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (6-Handed) saw the 1,271-strong field reduced to only 57, and Mark Ioli was the last player standing. The impressive victory came with $558,266 for Ioli in addition to an all-important WSOP bracelet.

The fifth bracelet of the day went to Scott Dulaney, who will forever be known as the winner of Event #31: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack. The champion outlasted 2,757 opponents on their way to hauling in their first bracelet and $194,155 in prize money.

Shakerchi Looking Good After Two Days on the Razz

Talal Shakerchi is in pole position for in Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship, where only 13 players remain in the hunt for the title and the $298,682 top prize. Shakerchi bagged up 1,104,000 chips, giving him a slender lead over Carlos Chadha-Villamarin (1,052,000) in second place.

Although Shakerchi leads, his victory is far from assured as there is some top poker talent in the chasing pack. Elior Sion (745,000), Bryce Yockey (589,000), Yuval Bronshtein (574,000), John Hennigan (346,000), and Nick Schulman (337,000) each have a part to play in Shakerchi’s story.

PokerNews‘ Day 3 coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. on June 15. We shall see you then.

Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship Chip Counts

PLO Experts Turn Out in Force for $1,500 Buy-in Event

Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha drew in 1,355 players but only 98 progressed to Day 2, and none of those surviving players bagged more chips than PLO specialist Josh Arieh (1,196,000).

Arieh played well and ran hot, which is a deadly combination for someone with five WSOP bracelets to their name. Matthew Parry (1,102,000) and Eric Fields (1,015,000) were the only players to break through the one million chip barrier.

There is still a long way to go in this event, but Arieh will fancy his chances of capturing a sixth WSOP bracelet, and tying with his friend Shaun Deeb. Arieh will have to outlast such luminaries as Robert Mizrachi (829,000), Anson Tsang (708,000), Daniel Negreanu (466,000), JC Tran (358,000), and Kevin Gerhart (157,000) if he is to win yet another Omaha tournament.

Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Top 10 Chip Counts

Huge Bounties on the Horizon in the $10K Secret Bounty Event

A prize pool of $3,578,400 was created in Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty after 568 players bought in. By the end of 15 levels, only 142 of those players had chips requiring bagging and tagging.

Loni Hui bagged up 616,000 chips at the end of the night, which are enough for sixth place at the restart. Only Aliaksandr Hirs (750,000), Yang Wang (710,000), Axel Hallay (708,000), Ariel Mantel (650,000), and Uri Reichenstein (626,000) packed away more chips than Hui.

The surviving players return to battle from 12:00 p.m. local time on June 15, knowing that the secret bounties are now in play. Stay locked to PokerNews to discover how much those bounties are worth, and which players get their hands on the juiciest one.

Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty Top 10 Chip Counts

Andres Korn bags Big On Day 1 of the Nine Game Mix

Argentina’s Andres Korn (240,700) bagged up one of the biggest stacks after Day 1 of Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix. Korn, who already possesses a WSOP bracelet, is one to watch going into Day 2.

Yashuo Chin (622,000) is the name at the top of the WSOP-supplied chip counts, although PokerNews will verify this figure at the start of Day 2 as it looks like an outlying amount and could actually be 62,200; we shall see.

Plenty of elite professionals put their mixed game skills to the test on Day 1. The likes of Todd Brunson (174,800), Marco Johnson (174,700), Scott Clements (154,000), Viktor Blom (151,400), and Adam Friedman (96,600) all made it through the first ten levels unscathed.

The cards are back in the air from 1:00 p.m. local time on June 15, and PokerNews‘ live reporting team will be with you every step of the way.

Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix Top 10 Chip Counts

What to Expect on Day 17 of the 2023 WSOP

Another two events shuffle up and deal for the first time on June 15, which is Day 17 of the 2023 WSOP.

Expect a bumper crowd for Event #37: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em, and an all-star cast for Event #38: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship.

You can also tune into all the action from the in-play events. They are Event #33: $10,000 Razz Championship, Event #34: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, Event #35: $10,000 Secret Bounty, and Event #36: $3,000 Nine Game Mix.