After he won a whopping $385,000 — the largest either player has managed to drag in a single session — on Jan. 22, Negreanu cut his deficit by almost 40%. He was down about $1 million at two. Well-known poker icon Daniel Negreanu has regularly reveled in the industry’s spotlight whether it be for his skills in gameplay, daring opinion or exciting matches. Most recently, the Canadian pro is once again under the limelight as social media banter against soon-to-be opponent in another interesting round of heads-up challenge Phil Hellmuth caught everyone’s attention. Daniel Negreanu has won 6 bracelets and 1 rings for total earnings of $19,550,955. See all events where they placed in-the-money.

Daniel Negreanu won six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championships. Global Poker Index (GPI) has recognized Negreanu as one of the best players of the past decade. Negreanu was also named WSOP Player of the Year for the year of 2004 and 2013. During his career, Daniel has won six “World Series of Poker” bracelets. Nowadays, a large number of poker enthusiasts play and better their skills online, and Negreanu was well aware of that – he is the owner of the Full Contact Poker website, and the site is mostly Daniel’s personal blog plus various poker-related forums.

Daniel Negreanu has been an absolute beast on the virtual felt against Doug Polk in recent weeks. Things got even better for the Poker Hall of Famer on Monday as he shipped a six-figure win, his fifth consecutive winning session.

The bad news for the GGPoker ambassador is he still faces a massive deficit. But the good news for him is he’s on the right track after once trailing by more than $950,000. And it wasn’t long ago that he was down by such a huge amount.

Polk and Negreanu are now 15,250 hands through a 25,000-hand heads-up no-limit hold’em poker challenge at the $200/$400 stakes on WSOP.com in Nevada.

In a sense, the outcome is close to what most expected. Polk has a big lead and he was the 5-1 favorite heading into the challenge. On the other hand, if you take away the luck factor from the first 19 sessions, there hasn’t been much difference in terms of skill between these players.

And that’s surprising to most because Polk is considered one of the best heads-up NLH players ever, while Negreanu is known for his live multi-table tournament prowess. But sometimes the prognosticators in sports and poker aren’t right.

Daniel Negreanu is back in the game

It may seem like Daniel Negreanu is getting crushed if you look at the overall scoreboard. But the truth of the matter is he’s only down 12 buy-ins with nearly 10,000 hands remaining.

Monday’s session was similar in one way to the previous four days and different in another. Negreanu won the previous four sessions but only by a combined $175,000. That’s less than five total buy-ins (each buy-in costs $40,000).

The reason he was unable to scoop big wins is down to late session collapses in most of those days. He would dominate for a couple of hours and then give back a big chunk of his profits in the final half hour.

That didn’t happen on Monday. On Day 26, the six-time WSOP bracelet winner started and finished strong. He jumped out of the gate to a quick $40,000 lead and then progressively built that over the four hours of play.

It wasn’t easy for Negreanu, however. Polk is a difficult opponent who rarely tilts when he’s losing. So, Negreanu had to continue battling to uphold his lead.

During the middle of the session, after trailing by over $100,000, Polk found some success with big bets, forcing Negreanu off pots. He erased much of the deficit at one point, but never caught up.

And then Negreanu took over late. For the first time in a while, he dominated the final hour of play and finished with a $132,648 profit over 750 hands. The deficit, once nearly at $1 million, is now down to $484,073 with 9,250 hands remaining.

Polk remains the heavy favorite and it won’t be easy for Negreanu to pull off a win. But after Monday’s impressive performance, he’s now within striking distance. A few more sessions like that and the match will become a coinflip.

How Much Money Has Daniel Negreanu Won

With that said, Polk’s hit a rough patch but is more than capable of turning this thing back in his direction. Negreanu’s heads-up game has improved drastically throughout this challenge. But he’s still facing arguably the best heads-up player ever, which means he can’t get complacent.

How Much Is Daniel Negreanu Net Worth

Polk’s lead is still large enough that if he bounces back with a couple straight big winning sessions in a row, Negreanu will have virtually no shot at winning. Negreanu has no margin for error with nearly a $500,000 deficit and only 9,250 hands remaining.

How Much Money Has Daniel Negreanu Won

Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk will be back in action Wednesday on WSOP.com at 2:30 pm PT. You can catch every hand live on the GGPoker YouTube channel.

How Much Daniel Negreanu Worth

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