John Hennigan Defeated Daniel Negreanu Heads-Up To Win His Sixth WSOP Gold Bracelet

John Hennigan has won the 2019 World Series of Poker $10,0000 seven-card stud championship, defeating a field of 88 entries to win his sixth WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $245,451. The 48-year-old poker pro from Philadelphia defeated a stacked final table en route to securing the title, including overcoming a chip deficit to defeat six-time WSOP champion Daniel Negreanu heads-up for the win.

“It’s fun to be here. It’s just an incredible feeling to play a tournament and go deep, and then not have to lose it. It’s more important than winning it, it seems like. I feel bad for Daniel right now, even though obviously he’s had a ton of success,” said the man known to many as ‘Johnny World’ after coming out on top. “I played a very good tournament, up to that point, but I really needed luck there when it got to heads-up. He played great the whole time. I believe I did as well but he clearly had me without the luck. That’s how it goes.”

Negreanu came incredibly close to securing his seventh bracelet but ultimately had to settle for $151,700 as the runner-up finisher. Negreanu entered the final day of the event as the chip leader with seven players remaining. Five of his six opponents were WSOP champions, with most having multiple wins at the series under their belts.

2019 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic main event champion David ‘ODB’ Baker got off to a strong start, scoring the first two eliminations of the day. He dispatched three-time bracelet winner Frank Kassela in seventh place ($30,817) and 2012 WSOP $2,500 mixed hold’em champion Chris Tryba in sixth place ($40,066) to close the gap somewhat with Negreanu.

Negreanu earned his first knockout with rolled-up sixes. ‘KidPoker’ failed to improve any further from there, but his trips were enough to bust two-time WSOP champion David Singer in fifth place ($53,621). He followed that up by eliminating Mikhail Semin. The Russian poker pro had come into the day as the clear short stack but managed to outlast three opponents to finish fourth for $73,810.

Negreanu continued his knockout spree, besting David Baker’s pair of fours with a pair of sixes. Baker earned $104,416 for his fourth final-table finish of 2019.

With that, Negreanu took 3,400,000 into heads-up play against Hennigan’s 1,900,000. The two Poker Hall of Famers battled it out for several hours, with several lead changes along the way. The penultimate blow that gave Hennigan the decisive lead saw Negreanu tank-fold on seventh street after plenty of action, leaving himself with just a couple big bets in his stack.

Those final chips got in on sixth street shortly afterward, with the two players’ boards looking as follows:

Negreanu – (J4) 3984
Hennigan – (A7) 9J7A

Hennigan had made aces up and was ahead of Negreanu’s pair of fours and a spade draw. Hennigan hit the 2 on seventh street. Negreanu sweated out his final card before revealing the 6, which was of no help. Negreanu was eliminated in second place, while Hennigan secured the title and 480 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was just his first POY-qualified score of the year. As a result, he climbed into 712th place in the 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

For more coverage from the summer series, check out the 2019 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, results, news, player interviews, and event recaps.

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