Daniel Negreanu came within three eliminations of a ninth WSOP bracelet before a painful river ended his run in the $25,000 WSOP Online High Roller NLH Championship on GGPoker. Negreanu finished fourth for $415,699, while Finland's Casimir Seire won the bracelet, $906,647 and a $30,000 Super Pass to WSOP Paradise.
A win would have made Negreanu only the tenth player in history with nine bracelets — and it would have been the first online bracelet of his career.
The hand that ended it
Negreanu's exit came four-handed. Seire, who had built a commanding chip lead, moved all in with 9♣8♦ for about 27 big blinds. Negreanu looked down at 10♦10♥ and called — an easy decision with an overpair to both of Seire's cards.
The A♦9♥6♣ flop gave Seire a pair of nines, but Negreanu's tens were still ahead. The 8♠ turn was the killer, giving Seire two pair, and the K♣ river offered no rescue.
Negreanu was streaming on YouTube at the time. As PokerNews reported, his reaction was simple: "That's it, guys, that was our chance to win the tournament."
Before the flop, Negreanu's tens were roughly a 70/30 favourite against nine-eight offsuit. It's the kind of spot top players get into on purpose — and lose about three times in ten.
Was the call right under ICM?
Four-handed at a final table, payout jumps matter. Fourth paid $415,699 and third paid $539,095 — a jump of more than $120,000 — so there's a real cost to busting. ICM (the Independent Chip Model) says players should call shoves with tighter ranges than pure chip math suggests when elimination is on the line.
But tens are near the top of any calling range against a chip leader shoving 27 big blinds. Seire was using his stack to apply pressure and could be shoving a wide range of hands, including many weaker aces, small pairs and suited or connected cards. Against that range, tens are a comfortable call even with ICM taken into account. Folding would have left Negreanu short and still facing the same pressure next orbit.
In other words, the result was painful, but the decision wasn't the problem.
How the final table unfolded
The event was Event #29 of the 2026 WSOP Online series, and 14 players returned for Day 2, each guaranteed $72,550. Negreanu started the day third in chips with 2,439,903, about 41 big blinds, behind Luxembourg's Pedro Neves (3,096,747) and Seire (2,734,115). Renan Bruschi, Ole Schemion and Christoph Vogelsang were also among the 14.
At the final table, Negreanu's run had several swings:
- Taking the lead. After the first break, Negreanu held pocket queens against Parahat Nurmuhammedov's J♣7♣. Nurmuhammedov check-raised a 5♣6♥5♦ flop, paired his jack on the J♦ turn and lost his stack. Negreanu took the chip lead with seven players left.
- The three-way all in. Negreanu's A♥K♠ met Ole Schemion's A♠Q♠ and Roman Emelyanov's 6♥6♦. The board ran A♣10♠Q♥9♥9♦. Schemion's queens-up took the pot, Emelyanov was out in seventh, and Negreanu fell to one of the shortest stacks.
- Fighting back. After Schemion went out in sixth, Negreanu won a race to double up, then won another race to eliminate Neves in fifth.
That left four players, with Seire holding the chips needed to put pressure on everyone else. He did exactly that, and after Negreanu's exit, Erwann Pecheux busted in third. Seire finished off Brazil's Fabiano Kovalski heads-up by making four of a kind.
Final table payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Casimir Seire | $906,647 |
| 2 | Fabiano Kovalski | $699,120 |
| 3 | Erwann Pecheux | $539,095 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | $415,699 |
| 5 | Pedro Neves | $320,548 |
| 6 | Ole Schemion | $247,176 |
| 7 | Roman Emelyanov | $190,599 |
| 8 | Parahat Nurmuhammedov | $146,971 |
Kovalski's runner-up result continues a big stretch for the Brazilian, who won two titles at EPT Barcelona in August — the €3,250 Mystery Bounty and the €10,300 High Roller.
Negreanu's 2026: close, again
This was not an isolated near miss. Negreanu won his eighth bracelet in July at the live WSOP, taking the $100,000 PLO High Roller for $2,257,718. That ended the questions about whether he could still win at the highest level and gave him two bracelets in the past three years after an 11-year drought.
In the same week as the $25K, he also finished seventh of 228 in the $10,000 GGMillion$ PLO for $71,409, and PokerNews reported he reached a third WSOP Online final table that week without converting any into a bracelet.
Three final tables in a week is a strong run by any standard. It also shows how thin the line is between a good week and a historic one.
The nine-bracelet club
Only nine players have won nine or more WSOP bracelets. Phil Hellmuth leads the list, with players like Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson and Erik Seidel behind him. Negreanu has been stuck on the edge of that group, and a win on GGPoker would have been a fitting addition given how much of his career has been tied to online poker, including his role as a GGPoker ambassador.
He'll have more chances. The WSOP Paradise festival in the Bahamas in December offers bracelets, and the 2027 summer series in Las Vegas will bring a full slate of events.
What this means for players
Get it in good and move on. Negreanu's call with tens against a 27-big-blind shove was clearly correct. The result was bad; the decision was fine. Learning to separate the two is one of the most important skills in poker, and it's central to avoiding tilt.
Big stacks create pressure. Seire used his chip lead to shove wide against shorter stacks, knowing they couldn't call lightly. At a final table with steep pay jumps, ICM pushes mid-stacks to fold more often. That's why a chip leader can open his range and why short stacks still need to pick good spots to double.
Know the numbers. Tens against nine-eight offsuit is about 70/30 preflop. You can check any matchup with our poker odds calculator.
WSOP Online isn't open to most US players. The GGPoker version of WSOP Online is for international players. US players looking for big online tournaments should check our US poker sites list, including BetOnline and Americas Cardroom, or follow the WSOP 2026 results page for the live series.
Negreanu leaves with a big score and a near miss. Seire leaves with his first bracelet and one of the biggest wins of the online series.