Negreanu Ninth Bracelet Bid Falls Short Again

The Negreanu ninth bracelet chase came up empty twice this week. He busted seventh in a $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event, then fell to fourth in the $25,000 high roller championship after a brutal river card. Casimir Seire won that bracelet and the $906,647 top prize, according to PokerNews.

How close did Negreanu come to a ninth bracelet?

The Negreanu ninth bracelet pursuit played out twice this week on GGPoker, and both times he came agonizingly close. He first reached the final seven of a $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event with the outright chip lead. Then, just days later, he built a monster stack at the $25,000 high roller championship final table.

Both runs ended in painful fashion. CardPlayer reports Negreanu lost a huge flush pot in the PLO event to Andreas Freund, who held the higher club flush on the river. That knockout sent Negreanu to seventh place for $71,111, well short of the ninth bracelet he was chasing.

In that PLO hand, Negreanu had turned top pair and dual flush draws with Q-J-4-4 double-suited against Freund's set of eights. He applied pressure with a raise, calling off when Freund shoved for nearly 200 big blinds. The river completed both flushes, but Freund's was higher.

What happened at the $25,000 high roller final table?

Negreanu started that final table third in chips, sitting around 60 big blinds, and built momentum early. He busted Parahat Nurmuhammedov with a full house after Nurmuhammedov check-raised a paired flop, then flopped bottom set to double through Pedro Neves for fifth place money.

The tournament turned on one hand. Negreanu called all in with pocket tens against Casimir Seire's 9-8, a spot CardPlayer says made him roughly an 86 percent favorite before the flop. Seire turned two pair on an eight, and a king on the river changed nothing. Negreanu was out in fourth place for $415,700.

PokerNews reports Negreanu called the hand 'our chance to win the tournament' right after it happened, capturing the moment his run ended. Seire went on to beat Fabiano Kovalski heads-up, hitting quads to seal the bracelet and the $906,647 prize.

Why does this matter for Negreanu's career numbers?

Negreanu already holds eight WSOP bracelets, the most recent coming from a $100,000 pot-limit Omaha win in Las Vegas this past summer. A ninth bracelet, and his first won fully online, would have made him just the ninth player in poker history to reach that total.

The two scores still moved his career earnings past $60.4 million, according to CardPlayer, putting him back atop the all-time list of Canadian money winners and into 10th place worldwide. That climb comes after an 11-year gap between his sixth and seventh bracelets, a drought he has now broken twice in three years.

Negreanu streamed both final tables live on his own channel, showing his hole cards to viewers throughout each hand. PokerNews and CardPlayer both note that is unusual for a player competing for seven-figure prize pools, since most pros keep their cards hidden from the audience until hands are over.

Who else made deep runs at these final tables?

Ole Schemion, a two-time bracelet winner, briefly tripled up in the high roller event by cracking two short stacks with A-Q, moving into the chip lead for a stretch. He later busted sixth for $247,177 after three-betting light into Pedro Neves' pocket queens.

Erwann Pecheux finished third for $539,095, right behind Negreanu, once Seire had built a commanding stack. In the PLO event, Andreas Freund took over the chip lead after eliminating Negreanu and was heads-up for the bracelet when CardPlayer last checked in, with a WSOP Paradise package and $428,888 still on the line for the winner. Freund started that day well behind the chip leader but grew his stack steadily through the final table.

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