Daniel Negreanu barely made the final table of the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event but he battled throughout the day Thursday only to finish as runner-up. Barry Shulman, father of November Niner Jeff Shulman, outdueled Negreanu over the five-hours of heads-up play to win the Main Event, £801,603 prize money and his third WSOP bracelet.

The day started with Negreanu, who unbagged only 438,000 chips, being involved in a number of pots. After a little more than 45 minutes Negreanu had chipped up to nearly 700,000 and move out of the short stack zone. From there he was able to manuevre his way to get heads-up with Shulman.

The first elimination took over four hours and Negreanu claimed the scalp. After Chris Bjorin raised to 85,000 pre-flop, James Akenhead moved all-in and Negreanu moved all-in behind him. Bjorin folded and Negreanu showed K K and found himself racing against the A Q of Akenhead. The board ran empty for Akenhead and the November Nine shortstack was out in ninth while Negreanu moved up to the third largest chip stack.

After Shulman eliminated Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko in eighth place Negreanu went on a tear. He eliminated the next five players to steadily climb the chip counts and get heads-up with Shulman. In order of elimination he snuffed out November Niner Antoine Saout, Bjorin, Markus Ristola, Jason Mercier and Praz Bansi.

When heads-up play began Negreanu had 6,180,000 chips to the 3,855,000 of Shulman. The heads-up battle though proved to be the one Negreanu couldn’t win. Over the course of five hours the two players went back and forth with both players holding the chip lead for an extended period of time. Twice Shulman was all-in for his tournament life and twice he managed to survive. The first time he cracked Negreanu’s aces with A 5 when he made the ace-high flush on the turn. The real drama came very close to the end though and might just be hand of the year. Nobody caught the action better than the official WorldSeriesofPoker.com updates team:

Our final two saw a 5 8 J flop and Shulman bet 300,000. Negreanu responded by raising to 900,000. And Shulman responded to that by moving all in.

Negreanu turned to the rail in the hope that they might help him with his decision. “So you all wanna go home, right?” he asked them. “I’m not saying I’m gonna lose…”

“Ah, I shouldn’t listen to the rail. I call.”

On their backs.

Negreanu: Q J
Shulman: A A 

Oh dear.

But wait!

Turn: to massive screaming from the suddenly very awake crowd — J

But wait some more!

River: …

…

…

A!

The hand gave Shulman the chip lead for the final time and the two players each picked up a pocket pair on the next hand. Shulman made a set with his pocket tens to make Negreanu’s pocket fours the second best hand. The win by Barry Shulman gives the Shulman family a rare opportunity to win both WSOP Main Event bracelets in the same year.

The £495,589 second place money for Negreanu was enough to make him the all-time tournament winnings leader with over $12,000,000 to his credit.

2009 WSOP Europe Main Event Final Table Payouts

1. Barry Shulman - £801,603
2. Daniel Negreanu - £495,589
3. Praz Bansi - £360,887
4. Jason Mercier - £267,267
5. Markus Ristola - £200,367
6. Chris Bjorin - £150,267
7. Antoine Saout - £114,228
8. Matt Hawrilenko - £87,074
9. James Akenhead - £66,533

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