Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu today won the arena Series of Poker Player of the Year title becoming the primary person to win the accolade twice. Negreanu started the day behind Matt Ashton at the POY leader board but had calculated that a top eight finish would see him clear the British mixed game specialist.

Negreanu's had an out of this world year: EPT9 Grand Final

There was the risk that November Niner Marc-Etienne McLaughlin was still within the a few of the final 13 and will he have gone deep and won the principle Event then he may have pipped Negreanu to the title. You assert that's improbable but something similar happened last year when Phil Hellmuth cashed in four WSOPE events, including a win within the WSOPE Main Event, to make a late dash for it leaving Greg Merson needing to win the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, which he did. This year's added drama was nixed when McLaughlin bust before the money leaving the consideration run in Negreanu's hands. It didn't take much longer.

Joni Jouhkimainen's bust out in 9th (€50,400) sealed the deal topping off an improbable year for Negreanu, which just about saw him complete his Triple Crown.

WSOP Player of the Year(Bracelets, final tables)2004: Daniel Negreanu (1, 5) $346,2802005: Allen Cunningham (1, 4) $1,007,1152006: Jeff Madsen (2, 4) $1,467,8522007: Tom Schneider (2, 3) $416,8292008: Erick Lindgren (1, 3) $1,348,5282009: Jeff Lisandro (3, 4) $807,5212010: Frank Kassela (2, 3) $1,255,3142011: Ben Lamb (1, 4) $5,352,9702012: Greg Merson (2, 2) $9,785,3542013: Daniel Negreanu (1, 3) $1,256,399*

*Stats don't include the last event (WSOPE €25k High Roller)

Negreanu has cashed in nine events WSOP events this year for $1,256,399 already (that comes with his WSOP APAC win and the WSOPE)

The congratulations came rolling in, and here is a couple of them:

And there has been a pleasing show of sophistication from Ashton:

At the time of writing Negreanu was fourth of 7 remaining players with €63,500 locked up and still in with a shot at €725,000 and his sixth bracelet. Will keep you updated.

DNegs on his solution to the EPT Vienna final table in 2010

Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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