Daniel Negreanu finally booked a big win against Doug Polk, and he desperately needed one to prevent surpassing the $1 million deficit mark.
Heading into Friday’s contest, Polk had recorded seven six-figure wins in the previous 10 sessions. He won so much money during the first 18 sessions that Negreanu had to add to his initial $1 million deposit.
Time and time again, the GGPoker ambassador would get off to a slow start either giving away a stack or getting coolered early in the session. That happened yet again on Friday. Polk, with pocket jacks, flopped a set of jacks on a J-4-9 board. Negreanu had pocket fours in the hand and there wasn’t much he could do to avoid giving away around $40,000 chips.
That’s been the story of this match for quite some time. Polk has won his fair share of coolers and bad beats. But the tide turned on Day 19. Daniel Negreanu was the one winning the monster pots.
Daniel Negreanu Hits a Mini Heater
Negreanu has said for days that he’s due for a heater. Despite the tough sessions, and all the bad beats and coolers, he has kept a positive attitude. On Friday, the luck was mostly in his favor following the early set-over-set cooler. And he also benefited from Polk’s aggression.
In one hand, on a board of A-2-2-J-7, Polk went for a massive over-bet on the river with air (K-Q). Negreanu snap-called with A-J, taking down a $159,000 pot that he so desperately needed. Moments later, he sucked out by hitting a set of sixes on the turn against Polk’s pocket kings to win an $80,000 pot.
The luck was finally starting to shift in the other direction. But Polk was still out-playing Negreanu in certain spots, namely winning a high-percentage of small to medium sized pots. His aggressive play was paying off as he nearly eliminated all of a $100,000 deficit on the day.
And then Negreanu picked it back up again and continued hitting hands. At one point, he was up by more than $200,000. Polk would get some chips back before the end of the session, but still lost $143,643 in 834 hands over three hours.
For the entire challenge, all 19 days of it, Polk’s lead is down to $814,290 in 10,784 hands. They have an agreement that the losing player at the 12,500-hand mark can surrender without penalty. That’s sure to be Negreanu, who has made it clear that he wants to continue playing. After Friday’s session, who can blame him?
