This year marks season 7 of the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the monthly sojourn to an exotic location may as well be called the Daniel Negreanu road show. The Canadian has spent much of 2010 attempting to capture the elusive final part of the Triple Crown to become only the third person in history to win it.
Good news for Negreanu is that one player has picked up the triple for the last two years and so far this year no one has been successful at doing this. Gavin Griffin in 2008, and Roland de Wolfe in 2009 both achieved the feat and this week’s EPT Barcelona would be the ideal opportunity.
So after renting out a private jet in order to renew his passport, and then flying on to the Catalunyan capital the effort is clearly there. Unfortunately, the not-so-good news for Negreanu is the trend for a younger generation of player winning at the EPT.
It looked like he’d achieve the Triple Crown at last month’s event in Vienna but he wasn’t expecting online qualifier and economics student, 20 year-old Michael Eiler, to be in his way. This, coupled with 23-year-old David Vamplew going heads up with tournament veteran John Juanda and winning, gives growing support to a group of impressive youngsters shaking up the circuit.
After day 1A of the proceedings in Barcelona, Loic Sa currently holds the chip lead going into the second day, but with 2009 champion Carter Phillips out on his ass we will have a new champion. Whether it will be Daniel “I really want an EPT title, now” Negreanu remains to be seen.
