Negreanu lost most of his chips in the opening moments of the $50K Poker Players Tournament.

Daniel Negreanu lost more than two-thirds of his chips in less than ten minutes at the start of the $50,000 Poker Players Tournament after paying off Chris Brewer's flush in No-Limit Texas Hold'em, but then quickly bounced back.

When late registration became one of the hottest topics at the 2026 World Series of Poker, Daniel Negreanu completely avoided the controversy at the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

The "poker prodigy" was seated from the very first hand, but ten minutes later, he had already lost more than two-thirds of his chips.

The seven-time gold bracelet winner and 2024 Poker Players Championship champion experienced one of the toughest starts on Sunday – he lost a big pot to Chris Brewer in the first level, watching his starting stack of 300,000 chips shrink to 60,000, while some players hadn’t even settled in yet.

This time Brewer didn't have a Bad Beat.

According to a report by Connor Richards of PokerNews:

Negreanu was in high spirits at the start of the tournament—he yelled "F*** TAY!" at his new tablemate Esther Taylor—but fell silent after a big No-Limit Texas Hold'em pot against Brewer.

In No-Limit Texas Hold'em, Qinghai Pan raises to 3,000 from the hijack position, and Brewer calls from the button. Negreanu 3-bets to 18,000 from the small blind, Pan folds, and Brewer calls.

Negreanu continued betting on the flop J♠K♠8♦, and Brewer called. Negreanu bet 38,000 on the turn 2♠, and Brewer called again.

The river card is 7♦, and Negreanu bets 60,000. Brewer remains still, then smoothly pushes out a stack of green 25,000 chips, raising to 175,000. Negreanu thinks and calls, but then folds—Brewer reveals 9♠8♠ for a flush.

Brewer discussed the hand with his tablemates after the game, revealing that he doesn't like playing large pots so early and that he might have folded if Negreanu had raised on the river—even though he only had about 22,000 chips left. However, he couldn't blame Negreanu for paying off his flush.

"I think I'm the most likely person to be without a card," he said.

Negreanu rebounded quickly

Fortunately for Negreanu, the story didn't end with Brewer winning a huge chip stack at the start of the tournament. After seeing his stack collapse, Negreanu didn't hesitate to fight back and has since recovered his stack to approximately 190,000 chips.

He beat John Rogers in 8-Lo or better with an Ace and an 8-7 hand. Later in No-Limit Texas Hold'em, he made Joao Vieira fold on the river. As journalist Brett Slezak observed:

Negreanu opened to 4,000 from the second action position, and Scott Seiver limped in from the small blind. From the big blind, Vieira compressed and raised to 20,000, which Negreanu called.

The flop of Q♦3♦2♠ and the turn of 4♠ both resulted in slow checks. Some chips finally came in on the river of 8♠—Vieira led with a bet of 17,000. Negreanu then raised to 65,000, and Vieira folded after a long minute of deliberation.

As of press time, 36 players have paid the $50,000 buy-in, including Chance Kornuth, Naoya Kihara, Luke Schwartz, Brian Rast, and Dan Cates. Stay tuned to PokerNews' live coverage for the latest updates on the Poker Players Tournament.

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