John Hennigan wins sixth WSOP bracelet

Known as one of the best Seven Card Stud players in the world, John Hennigan lived up to the billings this week by claiming his sixth career World Series of Poker bracelet.

Hennigan bested an 88-player field in the tournament to cash $245,451 in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. The field may sound small, but it was no easy feat for Hennigan, who faced a tough group on the final day of the tournament.

Not including Hennigan’s five bracelets, heading into the final day there were 13 WSOP bracelets between the seven players remaining. Six of those belonged to Daniel Negreanu, who was taking another crack at making it seven at his second final table of this year’s WSOP.

In a dream matchup, it came down to Hennigan and Negreanu heads-up for the tournament title. Negreanu had held the chip lead for most of the final day and went into heads-up with a sizable lead with 3.4 million chips to Hennigan’s 1.9 million.

Hennigan chipped away at Negreanu’s lead and took over the chip lead a few hands into heads-up. However, Negreanu quickly took it back as both players went on to trade the chip leader back and forth several time during their duel.

Late in the tournament, Hennigan went on a run, winning multiple hands in a row to drop Negreanu below a million chips.

On the final hand Hennigan tabled two pair, Ace and Sevens, which were good enough to top Negreanu’s Jack-high after he missed his flush draw.

For second place Negreanu received $151,700.

Hennigan’s first WSOP win came back in 2002 when he conquered the $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament. He followed that up with a win in the $5,000 Limit Hold’em tournament in 2004 but did not win again until 2014 when he took down the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship.

His other two wins came in the 2016 $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship, and the 2018 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

In total, Hennigan has posted 45 WSOP cashes worth nearly $5.8 million.