The World Series of Poker has gotten underway and we have our first few winners. With that in mind, let’s recap a couple of the champs as well as a familiar winner in the PokerGo Cup.
Negreanu Wins Inaugural PokerGo Cup
Some people thought that 46-year-old poker pro Daniel Negreanu was in the twilight of his career but he continues to prove everyone wrong. He participated and won in the inaugural PokerGo Cup. It was an eight-event series and Negreanu was doing everything in his power to stay one step ahead of his competition. He did that by picking up cash prizes in four of those eight events, earning a total of $996,200 throughout the series of events along with his first tournament title in about eight long years.
Despite all of his success during the series, he did get brutally eliminated from the final event. While he was sitting and watching in disappointment, his day got a whole lot better when he realized that Cary Katz won the event. Katz’s victory ended up helping Negreanu take the top spot in the points race, handing him an additional $50,000 in prize money.
Ali Imsirovic was close behind him on the points standings, picking up 497 points, two wins and three cashes throughout the series. In total, Imsirovic walked away with $545,500.
Chang Emerges Victorious During WSOP Online Event
The first World Series of Poker bracelet was handed out to a winner of a game other than no-limit hold’em, and that winner was Allen Chang. Chang had to overcome a tough field of 498 entries in order to come out on top in the WSOP Online $600 buy-in pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better six-max event. Not only did he pick up the gold bracelet, the win also netted him $61,394.
Chang’s winnings were the largest chunk out of the $268,920 prize pool. He wasn’t the only challenger who came away with some type of earnings, though, as the top 72 finishers walked away in the money.
For Chang, this wasn’t the first WSOP bracelet that he has won throughout his career. He previously won the fifth event in the 2020 WSOPO, which was a $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout event. That win got him $161,286 in prize money. In total, Chang has around $490,000 in career poker tournament earnings.
Saliba Wins The WSOP Online High Roller Event
It’s been a fantastic start to the WSOP for Justin Saliba as he was able to pick up a gold bracelet. The poker pro decided to compete in the 2021 World Series of Poker Online $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event, which happened to have a total of 188 entries. Luckily enough, Saliba was able to battle through all of those other competitors and emerged as the victor, claiming his bracelet alongside the largest chunk of the prize pool with $253,800.
Saliba has come a long way since his first ever recorded tournament score back in 2019. It seems like he randomly jumped from smaller stakes games to much larger stakes. That decision seems to have helped him out quite a bit as his career earnings are sitting at $455,167.
It was his largest score of his career by a mile. His previous record was held by a seventh-place finish in the $3,500 buy-in event that the Wynn Summer Classic Series hosted, which saw him claim $49,987.