Andreas Freund has won his first World Series of Poker bracelet after a wild $10,000 GGMillion$ Pot-Limit Omaha final table that briefly looked ready to become another Daniel Negreanu victory lap.
Instead, the Austrian cracked open the tournament in one enormous pot against Negreanu, survived a heads-up fightback and collected $428,456 along with a $30,000 WSOP Paradise Super Pass.
The result gives Freund the bracelet that had already come close twice in 2026. He finished third in the $5,000 PLO Championship earlier in this same WSOP Online series and fifth in the €5,300 PLO European Championship at WSOP Europe, so this was less a bolt from nowhere than the final step of a very productive Omaha year.
Negreanu Starts With 92 Big Blinds and Lasts 20 Minutes
The final table began with seven players from a 228-entry field and plenty of attention on Daniel Negreanu. The eight-time bracelet winner returned with 6.4 million chips, worth 92 big blinds, and sat second only to Freund’s 8.6 million. With $428,456 up top, Negreanu had a realistic shot at bracelet number nine only a few months after winning the $100,000 PLO High Roller in Las Vegas.
For a few early hands, the script looked cooperative. Negreanu picked up pots and moved into the chip lead, but tournament poker has never shown much respect for scripts. Roughly 20 minutes into play, he and Freund collided in a pot worth close to 200 big blinds.
Freund opened from under the gun and Negreanu defended his big blind. The ace-deuce-three flop checked through before an eight on the turn triggered the fireworks. Negreanu bet pot, Freund raised pot, Negreanu repotted and the rest went in.
Freund’s holding included a set of eights and a higher club draw, leaving one of Negreanu’s flush draws dominated. PokerOrg calculated Negreanu had only a 17.5% chance to scoop once the chips were committed. A five of clubs on the river completed a flush for both players, but Freund’s was higher and the biggest pot of the final table went his way.
One Pot Changes the Whole Final Table
The hand did not technically eliminate Negreanu, but it left him with little more than six big blinds. He nearly tripled immediately afterwards before losing another all-in on the river and departing seventh for $71,409. Negreanu later explained that he had been playing for first rather than trying to ladder, describing the turn as the one card capable of creating such an extreme collision.
That exit also transformed Freund’s position. Instead of sharing a deep-stacked table with another player capable of matching him, he suddenly had a huge pile and room to put the remaining field under pressure. The entire final table lasted only a little over an hour.
Freund worked through a strong group that included Samuli Sipila, Biao Ding, Chris Nguyen and Dirk Gerritse. The final payouts were $235,788 for Sipila in third, $174,916 for Ding in fourth, $129,759 for Gerritse in fifth and $96,260 for Nguyen in sixth.
Recchimurzo Refuses to Roll Over Heads-Up
Vito Jhonny Recchimurzo was the last obstacle, and the Venezuelan made Freund earn it. Freund reached heads-up with momentum and the bigger stack, but Recchimurzo doubled several times and managed to pull the contest back towards level.
Freund eventually regained control and closed out the tournament for $428,456. Recchimurzo’s runner-up finish was worth $317,844, while Freund also secured the $30,000 Super Pass attached to the event for December’s WSOP Paradise Super Main Event.
The bracelet is particularly notable because Freund had already come painfully close during this online series. Earlier in September he started the seven-handed final table of the $5,000 PLO Championship as the shortest stack, climbed all the way to third and earned $155,259 before Max Stenberg took the title. Add his fifth-place finish at WSOP Europe and the Austrian has now made three major WSOP PLO final tables in 2026.
Negreanu’s Canada Trip Has Already Produced a Story
For Negreanu, the result is the first major twist since travelling from Las Vegas to Vancouver specifically to play the international WSOP Online schedule. His opening shot at another bracelet could hardly have gone much deeper, even if the final table itself ended brutally quickly.
He is not done. Negreanu jumped into the $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller after the PLO exit, while the wider online festival is moving into its biggest week. The WSOP Online Main Event has built a $28.5 million prize pool, with $4 million waiting for its champion.
Freund, meanwhile, gets the cleaner headline. After two near misses in major PLO bracelet events this year, he finally converted a final table into gold. Knocking a 92-big-blind Negreanu off course in a 200-big-blind pot was a fairly emphatic way to do it.
