Volpe earned his first WSOP bracelet and $253,524 while denying Negreanu his 7th career bracelet after a tough heads-up battle.
Only 14 players cashed in the tournament. Volpe grabbed the chiplead late in Day 2 then used them to his advantage.
“I tried not getting too out of line,” Volpe said of his late-day strategy, “I was just trying to pick up chips; once I had chips I was just trying to put pressure on the shorter stacks.”
Only Player at Final Table Without WSOP Win
It was a tough final table as Volpe came in as the only player without a WSOP win. It was a situation he understood.
“We were talking about that last night,” Volpe said, “All these guys with bracelets and me. It was just a sick final table.”
Volpe held the chiplead at the start but was up against Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Brian Rast, John Monnette, Abe Mosseri and Larry Wright.
Volpe had a rough time early in the action and gave up the lead to Mercier after quick exits by Mosseri and Monnette.
By the time it hit three-handed play Volpe was 3rd in chips and it looked like a possible all PokerStars heads-up match between Negreanu and Mercier.
From Volpe’s perspective, Negreanu and Mercier thought that as well.
“I almost got the feeling when it was three-handed that they wanted to get heads up,” Volpe commented, “I saw them kind of looking at each other and were like ‘damn’ when I was winning pots.”
“I really felt like they wanted to get heads up because that really would be a big deal,” Volpe continued, “Jason versus Daniel. I was happy to beat them.”
"I Knew How Much it Meant for All His Side Bets"
Mercier’s lead didn't last long. Volpe took back the lead with a 400k pot when he made the third-best Deuce-to-Seven hand to jump ahead.
Volpe began heads-up play against Negreanu holding a better than 2-to-1 chip advantage and pushed them hard. Much has been made of the high-stakes Negreanu/Ivey bracelet prop bet and Volpe thought it showed in his play.
“He wants to win a bracelet so bad. He plays amazing, but as we were getting deeper and deeper he could have been hesitant to put all his chips in,” Volpe explained.
“He really wanted to get heads up and go from there. I felt like I took advantage of that, I put a lot of pressure on.
“I knew he was trying to get heads up and I knew how much it meant for all his side bets.”
Negreanu was able to make a small comeback but never pulled ahead. It ended when Volpe open-shoved and Negreanu called saying, “I have four good ones.”
Negreanu was drawing better with J-6-5-4 against J-T-7-6 before Volpe snapped over a trey. It left Negreanu with a lot of outs for the double but he drew high.
“It’s paint,” exclaimed Negreanu.
The hand sent Negreanu out in 2nd place and ended the sweat for everyone holding bets against him. Negreanu and Ivey still have 50 events to make their doubters sweat, however.
Volpe loves Deuce-to-Seven and now owns a bracelet in his favorite game along with $253,524. This is his first major title after two WPT close calls in 2013.
He took his payout and immediately jumped into the $3,000 NLH 6-Max tournament to try for bracelet #2.
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