Daniel Negreanu Aiming For Poker Triple Crown At EPT Vienna

Daniel Negreanu’s prospects of completing a Triple Crown victory got a massive boost yesterday, after he finished Day 2 of the EPT Vienna in pole position.
Already with 4 WSOP bracelets and 2 WPT titles to his name, Negreanu would dearly love to add the EPT title to his tally and join Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin as the only other players to accomplish the impressive feat.
There is also the prospect of a €700,000 ($972,677) pay-day which would propel him ahead of Phil Ivey currently on $13,642,275 atop the All Time Money List.
As Day 2 of the €5,000 buy-in EPT Vienna got underway, Negreanu was on a below average stack but soon found himself amongst the big stacks after getting it in with pocket aces against Szymon Pieszczoch’s pocket kings.
Negreanu then won a huge pot after being involved in a three-way showdown with Adam Jerney’s holding pocket kings and Jürgen Wenigwieser pocket fours to Negreanu’s pocket tens. A 10 on the river was enough to eliminate both opponent’s from the competition, while propelling Daniel to the chip lead.
With just 80 players from the original starting field of 587 now remaining, Negreanu ended Day 2 with 893,000 in chips, a clear 200,000 more than 2nd and 3rd place rivals Antonio Buonanno and Toni Judet on 704,000 a piece.
Commenting on his formidable run at the EPT tournament, Negreanu said:
“Being chip leader is just sexy. It’s been a while since I had some luck late in tourneys and I’ve been deep quite a bit. Well, I was certainly lucky in the late stages of EPT Vienna…So while I’d like to claim that I skilled my way to the chip lead I’d be lying… but hey, I’m not complaining and I’ll take it anyway I can.”
As the EPT Vienna 2010 is whittled down to its final 24 players today, we wish Daniel the best of luck and will endeavour to bring you updates as to his progress throughout the competition.