Negreanu Makes His Poker Masters Return as Ausmus Takes Event #7

Daniel Negreanu had skipped the opening six Poker Masters events before making his first appearance in Event #7, and his first entry did not last. The second went considerably better.

By the later stages of Day 1, Negreanu had worked his way into the money and remained among the final seven with $34,800 already secured. His run ended in a blind-versus-blind confrontation with Cherish Andrews, when Negreanu limped from the small blind holding ace-eight and called off his remaining 480,000 after Andrews moved in with pocket deuces.

The flop gave Negreanu an ace, but it also brought a deuce, leaving Andrews with a set. No rescue came on the turn, and the Canadian left in seventh. It was his first cash of this Poker Masters and only his second recorded live tournament cash since the end of his summer schedule.

His exit came before the tournament reached Tuesday's five-handed final session, where Aram Oganyan returned with the chip lead and Adrian Mateos sat close behind. Ausmus began third, then gradually removed everybody standing between him and another PGT trophy.

Cherish Andrews was first to go when Ausmus' pocket nines held against ace-queen. Mateos followed in fourth, and Joe McKeehen's own pocket nines ran into Ausmus' kings in third. Oganyan briefly wrestled the lead away heads-up, but the match turned when Ausmus rivered a straight against trip fours and called an all-in shove. A few hands later, queen-seven held against jack-five to close it out.

The win was worth $278,400 and gave Ausmus his 10th career PGT title, moving him into double figures on the tour while also pushing him to fifth in the Poker Masters Purple Jacket standings.

Justin Vaysman's Monday victory required a comeback that looked impossible before it actually started working.

Seven players returned for the final day of the $10,500 Event #6, with Sean Winter holding a narrow lead over Victoria Livschitz. Vaysman sat third, and because only 15 big blinds separated first from last, nobody began the day in especially comfortable territory.

During five-handed play, Winter left Vaysman with just 20,000 chips while the blinds were 40,000/80,000. That was one-quarter of a big blind, enough that surviving more than a hand or two required some immediate help.

Vaysman found it. Several doubles gave him room again, and then a four-handed three-way all-in pushed him back into genuine contention when his ace-nine beat Winter's king-three and Brandon Wilson's ace-king. Wilson disappeared soon afterwards, while Livschitz exited in third after running king-jack into Winter's kings.

Winter began heads-up with the larger stack, but Vaysman gradually worked it down before making a major river call with king-six to catch a bluff and move in front. 

The last hand saw Vaysman flop top two pair with ten-nine against Winter's jack-three of diamonds; Winter picked up draws and moved all-in on the turn, but the river filled Vaysman up instead.

From 20,000 chips to the trophy, the comeback was worth $192,000 and Vaysman's first PGT title.