Just five players remain in the hunt for a WSOP gold bracelet in Event #9 of the 56^th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Daniel Negreanu is one of them. With Viktor Blom leading the way, we’ve got news of two new bracelet winners on a busy day of action in Las Vegas.

Can Kid Poker Take Down ‘Isuldur’ When Battle Commences?

Daniel Negreanu infamously prepares for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) by rewatching Rocky videos. If he’s been studying them closely – and we’ve no doubt that he has – his enjoyment of the movies as the ultimate WSOP warm-up might be tempered by the final film of the original series, Rocky V. In the movie, Sylvester Stallone takes on ‘Tommy Gunn’ whose battling qualities have taken him all the way from the streets to the ring.

Tomorrow, Las Vegas will pay host to Daniel Negreanu’s latest epic battle for a bracelet when he takes on protégé Viktor Blom. The former Full Tilt Poker poster boy from the post-boom era has famously defeated all and sundry in the online streets and was even introduced as a sponsored pro back in the day by Negreanu.

When ‘Isuldur1’ peeled off the mask and became plain old Viktor Blom, he showed very quickly that his skills at the live felt were no less impressive. Crushing tournaments online was good prep for doing so in high rollers and MTTs alike. This reporter once watched Blom in the early days after his reveal and in one high roller, the famously shy Swede was being discussed by his peers while he was playing.

‘Look at that shirt he’s wearing, hey Viktor, what about that?’ one asked. The shirt in questions was black with very small white dots all over it. Except on closer inspection they weren’t dots. They were skulls.

‘Why the skulls?’ another player asked. Viktor just smiled a tight-lipped grin, polite but restrained.

‘Each skull represents one of his victims!’ another player answered for him. Blom himself remained silent, but then, he has always let his cards do the talking.

David vs. Goliath?

If Blom taking on Negreanu looks imbalanced in historical terms, that’s because it is. Negreanu, who sold 25% of his action in this year’s WSOP on PokerStake late last month, has seven WSOP bracelets, the most recent coming last year in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. That banked him a cool $1.1m in ‘the one they all want to win’. Blom, however, has no WSOP titles to his name.

Not that blom or Negreanu are guaranteed to have it all their own way. The two men aren’t heads-up yet. With five players remaining, Blom has a chip lead in Event #9, better known as the $10,000-entry Omaha Hi-Lo Championship. His stack of 4,020,000 is some way clear of Ryan Bambrick (3,250,000) in second and Negreanu, who sits a raise behind Bambrick on 3,205,000 chips.

Both Hunter McClelland (1,300,000) and Ofir Mor (1,190,000) won’t have given up hopes of winning their first-ever bracelets, with Bambrick looking to win his second title in Las Vegas, after taking home $217,23 by winning the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Event #30 back in 2018. Seven years is a long time, just ask Negreanu, who had to wait over a decade between WSOP wins in Las Vegas before last year’s salvation-like success.

Final Table Drama

Once yesterday’s final table had been reached, Negreanu suffered a damaging defeat, his pocket aces losing to Hunter McClelland’s flopped nut flush draw which came in on the turn. There was no panic from Kid Poker, however, no discarded camera, no jettisoned hand-held tripod. The Canadian kept playing and stacking, rolling with the punches like Rocky himself.

The world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, of course, and Blom knows that better than anyone, having won and lost more tournaments online than any of his final table opponents have likely played. While Negreanu is the Masterclass maestro, the bridge between old school and modern day, Blom is a firmly modern favorite. Tomorrow, he has the chance to add WSOP gold to his legacy.

Both men will likely take hits tomorrow as they continue on what seems a collision course for control of the first week of the WSOP’s headline writers.

They would do well to remember that: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

One way or the other, winning will be done in Las Vegas when Daniel Negreanu and Viktor Blom face off at the felt in Omaha Hi-Lo. A golden reminder of the battle is on the line.

WSOP Event #9 $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship Chip Counts:
Rank	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Viktor Blom	Sweden	4,020,000
2nd	Ryan Bambrick	United States	3,250,000
3rd	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	3,205,000
4th	Hunter McClelland	United States	1,300,000
5th	Ofir Mor	United States	1,190,000

Michael Wilklow Wins Mystery Millions

After defeating Costa Rican professional Michael Acevedo heads-up, Michael Wilklow won the $1,000-entry Mystery Millions for the $1m top prize and the WSOP immortality attached with the event.

While both the million-dollar bounties were won on Day2, Wilklow and Acevedo battled successfully to make the heads-up battle for the third $1m prize of the event and when Wilklow had queen-jack to Acevedo’s ace-king, a board of A-Q-Q-J-T spelled doom for the latter who called off his stack with Broadway only to lose to a full house.

“I’ve never felt more focused than today. In the past, when I’ve played the Main Event, I remember feeling very tired on Day 3. Today was different,” said an ecstatic Wilklow after winning. “Before the day started and during the breaks, I was reviewing my heads-up notes just in case [I made it], and I was glad that I did.”

Viewers on PokerGO were treated to the live-streamed action from the final table , which you can check out here.

WSOP Event #1 $1,000 Mystery Millions Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Michael Wilklow	United States	$1,000,000
2nd	Michael Acevedo	Costa Rica	$563,350
3rd	Daniel Strelitz	United States	$429,950
4th	Yu Hsiang Huang	Taiwan	$329,940
5th	Elliott Kampen	United States	$254,590
6th	Wesley Fei	China	$197,550
7th	Linda Ngo	United States	$154,140
8th	Jeffrey Hong	United States	$120,950
9th	Michael Marks	United States	$95,551

Kenneth Kim Wins $600 Deepstack Event Bracelet

American Kenneth Kim won the $600 Deepstack NLHE event for a top prize of $318,842 after defeating Ecuadorian Alex Paredes heads-up for the gold after 6,090 entries populated the event. With five players left, Kim ran over the remaining players, busting three of his final four opponents Daniel Muniz in third place. Turning a wheel draw against a nut flush draw, Kim held through fifth street to beat Paredes and punch the air as he won a maiden WSOP bracelet.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Kim said afterwards. “I just want to play my best and see what the results will bring.”

WSOP Event #10 $600 NLHE Deepstack Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Kenneth Kim	United States	$318,842
2nd	Alex Paredes	Ecuador	$212,275
3rd	Daniel Muniz	United States	$157,968
4th	Gary Blackwood	United Kingdom	$118,468
5th	Jared Anderson	United States	$89,541
6th	Raul Melendres Cruz	Mexico	$68,212
7th	Edgar Antezana	South Africa	$52,377
8th	Luis Diaz Moreno	Mexico	$40,541
9th	Chad Cullimore	United States	$31,633