With five players remaining in the World Series of Poker $50,000 Players Championship, Daniel Negreanu is looking to end an 11-year bracelet drought and put his name on the Chip Reese memorial trophy. But Chris Brewer, one of the best and most successful high stakes tournament players in the world, is standing in his way.
And Brewer has most of the chips.
“It’s exciting. I’ve just been really fortunate and had a lot of good runouts. I’m not going to try to think about it too much, either way and just hope that keeps happening,” Brewer told WSOP reporters at the close of play. “It would be a cool one. It’s not something I try to think about too much until after. The only thing I care about is the next hand I’m going to play tomorrow. I’ll worry about anything else when the tournament is done.”
Brewer leads the last five players with 26 big blinds, but Negreanu is right behind him with 19. The other three players, Dylan Smith (10 bigs), Bryce Yockey (9 bigs), and David Benyamine (2 bigs) have plenty of work to do to get into title contention.
The tourney resumes at 2 p.m. Las Vegas time. Play ended a little after 3 a.m. this morning.
Negreanu hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet since 2013, and he hasn’t won one in Las Vegas since 2008. It’s a drought that saw him finish second six times, third six times, fourth three times, fifth four times, six five times, seventh once, eighth four times, and ninth another six times.
Brewer won both of his WSOP bracelets last year, his first coming in the $250,000 buy-in event for $5,293,556. He also won the $10,000 2-7 Lowball championship for $367,599. Most of his $23 million in lifetime winnings came by taking down high-roller events.
Negreanu ended the night second in chips after rivering a straight flush against Yockey’s made full house during a round of Pot Limit Omaha, while Brewer vaulted to the top after knocking out Johannes Becker.
The final five players were part of a dozen who made it through to Day 4. They were some of the best and most decorated players who are currently playing and included recent bracelet winner Phil Ivey, three-time Players Champion Michael Mizrachi, high stakes champion Jeremy Ausmus, and Portuguese superstar Joao Vieira.
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Brewer | United States | 10,465,000 | 26 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 7,635,000 | 19 |
| 3 | Dylan Smith | United States | 4,030,000 | 10 |
| 4 | Bryce Yockey | United States | 3,670,000 | 9 |
| 5 | David Benyamine | France | 900,000 | 2 |
This event began in 2006 as the $50,000 HORSE championship and was won by Chip Reese, a legendary player who was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1991 at the age of 40. He passed away in December of 2007, and in 2008, the WSOP honored his memory by creating a trophy in his name that goes to the winner of this event.
The name of the event was changed to The Players Championship in 2008, and the number of poker varieties used was expanded to eight. In 2010, it went to a 10 game mix of limit 2–7 triple draw lowball, limit Texas hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha 8OB, Razz, seven-card stud, seven card stud 8OB, no-limit Texas hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, badugi, and 2–7 no-limit draw lowball.
This year’s event brought in 89 entries.
