Negreanu Triples Up in WSOP $100K PLO High Roller

Negreanu finds his groove in the WSOP $100K PLO

Daniel Negreanu reminded the poker world why Pot-Limit Omaha still feels like home. In Tuesday’s session, he tripled his stack in under two hours in the WSOP $100,000 PLO High Roller and advanced to Day 2 with real momentum behind him.

That kind of run matters in a field like this. In elite Omaha, early chip accumulation does more than pad a stack — it changes table dynamics, opens up pressure spots, and signals to the rest of the field that a player is comfortable navigating the game’s most volatile streets. Negreanu has spent years building a reputation as one of the best mixed-game and Omaha specialists in the world, and this event fits that profile perfectly.

Why the $100K PLO High Roller matters so much

The $100,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller is the second-most expensive buy-in of the 2026 WSOP summer. Only the $250,000 Super High Roller costs more, and that event was won by Adrian Mateos for $4.3 million in June.

This is the kind of tournament that compresses the best of the best into one room. The buy-in filters out casual entries, the structure rewards precision, and the player pool is packed with elite regulars who understand PLO at the deepest levels.

• Jason Koon
• Alex Foxen
• Nick Schulman
• Eelis Parssinen
• Stephen Chidwick

Late registration closed early Wednesday afternoon with the field up to 55 entries. Last year’s edition drew 121 total entries, and Shaun Deeb took it down for $2,957,229. This year’s prize pool reached $5,280,000, and the event is now expected to run three days.

For players studying how top-tier fields are built, it helps to compare this environment with the traffic patterns seen in poker rooms and poker clubs, where serious regulars often sharpen the skills needed for high-buy-in formats.

The bracelet Negreanu actually wants

Negreanu has said for years that Pot-Limit Omaha is the game he enjoys most at this stage of his career, and his results have backed that up. In 2024, he won his seventh bracelet in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, ending an eleven-year bracelet drought.

Last summer, though, he came painfully close to bracelet No. 8 and fell just short. He finished runner-up to Ryan Bambrick in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, a result that still sits in the background of his current WSOP season.

This summer, Negreanu’s schedule includes 40 bracelet events. A deep run in a $100,000 field is not just another line on the ledger — it gives added weight to a chase that has become one of the defining storylines of his year.

How a late start turned into a two-hour surge

Negreanu was not part of the early headlines. That belonged briefly to Phillipp Mellon, a player with no Hendon Mob record who satellited in for $120 and climbed to the chip lead before busting after flopping a set.

Negreanu arrived at the Tuesday dinner break with the standard 600,000 starting stack. Within two hours, he had tripled it by eliminating Jeremy Druckman in an aces-versus-aces hand that ultimately ran out to a straight and a rivered nut flush for Negreanu.

That kind of hand swing is exactly why PLO is so compelling at the highest level. The equity can reverse quickly, and one big pot can reshape the entire tournament for the player who wins it.

Negreanu finished Day 1 fifth among the 19 players who advanced to Day 2. At the top of the standings was Artur Martirosian, a four-time bracelet winner who established himself as the man to chase heading into the next session.

Day 2 chip counts and the battle at the top

By Wednesday afternoon, Negreanu had climbed to 2,050,000 chips and moved into the top five. That is a strong position in a tournament where the average stack was around 1.5 million with 20 players left.

The climb was not without resistance. In Level 11, Negreanu lost a 505,000 pot to Martirosian after firing nine-high into a five-card board, only to run into Martirosian’s set of tens. It was a costly hand, but not one that derailed his run.

• Artur Martirosian — 6,250,000
• Sean Winter — 3,600,000
• Joni Jouhkimainen — 2,550,000
• Daniel Negreanu — 2,050,000
• Gergo Nagy — 1,900,000

Martirosian had built a lead of more than 2.6 million chips over Sean Winter, in part after eliminating Dong Min Sun with a river two-outer. In a field this strong, those pots matter. They create separation, and separation is everything when the remaining player pool is filled with world-class Omaha specialists.

If you are trying to improve your own PLO game, studying poker school material and keeping an eye on promotions & bonuses can help bridge the gap between casual play and disciplined high-level preparation.

Expert analysis: what Negreanu’s run says about modern PLO

Negreanu’s surge is more than a headline about a famous player running hot. It highlights several truths about modern Pot-Limit Omaha.

First, PLO is a game where experience and postflop precision matter enormously. With four hole cards in play, equities run closer together, the number of viable draws increases, and the turn and river become far more consequential than in most hold’em spots. That means a veteran like Negreanu can leverage deep format knowledge even against younger, highly technical opponents.

Second, his run reinforces the value of specialization. Negreanu has openly said that PLO suits him better than hold’em at this stage of his career, and this event shows why. Instead of trying to prove everything in every format, he is leaning into the games where his edge is real and sustainable.

Third, the field composition itself is a reminder of how concentrated elite poker has become. When names like Koon, Foxen, Chidwick, Schulman, and Martirosian all sit in the same event, small mistakes get punished fast. Sizing, blockers, stack depth, and late-position pressure all matter more than ever.

For serious players, the takeaway is clear: success in high-stakes Omaha is built on discipline, hand reading, and the ability to survive volatility without abandoning your strategy. That is exactly the type of edge Negreanu is trying to convert into bracelet No. 8.

What comes next for the final table and Negreanu’s bracelet chase

Day 2 is the penultimate stage of the tournament, which means the final table will be reached on Day 3 regardless of how Negreanu’s stack ends up at the close of play.

That keeps his bracelet pursuit alive for at least one more session, and it also keeps one of the summer’s best storylines in motion. With the WSOP Main Event set to begin on July 2, this high-stakes Omaha event serves as a final showcase for the specialists before the biggest tournament of the series takes center stage.

Negreanu is still very much in the hunt for bracelet No. 8. And in a field this tough, simply staying near the top is already a statement.

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