Barry Shulman wins WSOPE, but heartbreak for Negreanu

The WSOPE Main Event has concluded with Barry Shulman as the champion. He wins £800,000 and change for his win. Big congratulations must go to him and the pressure is now on Jeff Shulman to emulate his Dad and go on to win the WSOP Main Event in November! Certainly Cardplayer magazine will have plenty of exclusives coming up on both final table appearances (Jeff is the editor of the magazine). We must, however, spare a thought for Daniel Negreanu who came second, but was one card away from winning it all before suffering a dreaded bad beat.

The final day of the poker tournament had been running for sixteen hours and the players were down to the final two after Praz Bansi of the Hit Squad was eliminated in third place. Negreanu dominated the heads up contest but was cruelly denied the title on the river card after his hand of QJ improved to trip Jacks only for Barry Shulman’s AA hand to improve to the better set when an Ace came on the river. At 4am after sixteen hours of play, Daniels pocket fours lost out to the pocket 10’s of Barry, condemning him to second place, despite being so close to a main event win.

Negreanu can feel consoled by the tournament prize of £495,589 which takes him to the enviable position of the person who has won the most tournament prize money ever. Although he would be the first to say it does not matter, Negreanu performed excellently at the final table. He was bang on form eliminated six members of the final table. With his large cash for second place, Daniel overtook Jamie Gold and Phil Ivey. This does not mean he is the most profitable, but has cashed the most money from tournaments. Knowing Daniel, however, he will not be thinking too much about the money or the record but only of missing out on the main event bracelet. Losing in this fashion would hurt anyone.

Credit to Daniel, the true professional that he is he did not tilt following this vicious beat and continued to play hard. He dominated the final table but luck and destiny was standing with Barry Shulman. Daniel will undoubtedly bounce back, but perhaps a sign of his disappointment is that he did not update his blog which is normally the first thing he does, with long and thoughtful postings a regular occurrence. Such a bad beat is hard to take for anyone, but perhaps someone with so much to thank poker for will find some perspective somewhat easier than if an amateur had suffered it.

The final positions of the event ended up as follows. James Akenhead of the UK will be disappointed to finish in 9th place after being second in chips when starting the final table and looked a real threat for the title itself. He will feel equally anti-climatic but this should give him credit confidence going into the final table of the main event proper. Antoine Saout, cashing for over £100,000 should also be proud of his achievements this week. Here are the finishing positions and prizes.

1: Barry Shulman — £801,603
2: Daniel Negreanu — £495,589
3: Praz Bansi — £360,887
4: Jason Mercier — £267,267
5: Markus Ristola — £200,367
6: Chris Bjorin — £150,267
7: Antoine Saout — £114,228
8: Matt Hawrilenko — £87,074
9: James Akenhead — £66,533

It will be interesting to see if the 2010 WSOPE gets more entrants. Due to the professionals at this final table and the many side stories and subplots for writers like me to muse over the coverage has never been higher. Hopefully this is the dawn of better events in the World Series of Poker in Europe.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Tags: negreanu, poker, poker tournament, shulman, WSOPE