Daniel Negreanu is exactly where he expected to be going into this WPT World Poker Open event being held in Tunica, MS.

Earlier this month Daniel said he was going to dedicate himself to a new start, more focused poker and a renewed energy in the game he loves. He even shaved his head a few weeks ago to symbolize this new, fresh start.

Well, it seems to be going well for him. Daniel is comfortably in second place in chips with 6 players remaining at the championship event.

Daniel has contributed most of his success so far to surprisingly “being hungry” and no that’s not a metaphore. He’s actually been starving while staying at the Gold Strike Hotel and Casino in Tunica, MS. Daniel has been complaining for days now about how bad the food is at the hotel and how there simply aren’t any healthy choices. He’s also contributed some of that success to playing what he calls “small ball” poker.

Whatever Daniel has been doing it’s surely been working. Daniel not only is the all-time leading money winner on the World Poker Tour, but has now broke the record for most consecutive cashes on the WPT with 4 straight, and has also tied John Juanda with the most WPT cashes with 14. Daniel says, “I’ve probably played about 50 WPT events now, so I’m cashing roughly 30% of the time while making six final tables in that span, not including a 7th place finish in Paris.”

Play starts again today at 5pm CT and will probably go until around 11pm or so. If you’re interested in seeing live updates, you can visit the live tournament updates section at CardPlayer.com. Also, if you want to check in with Daniels take on this tournament so far you can log on to his personal poker blog.

Here are the chip counts going into today’s final table in Tunica…
Seat #1: Gary Kainer – $514,000
Seat #2: J.C. Tran – $181,000
Seat #3: Brian Sumner – $596,000
Seat #4: Kido Pham – $731,000
Seat #5: Daniel Negreanu – $1,296,000
Seat #6: Young Cho – $2,571,000

Update: Daniel ended up finishing second and received just over $500,000. Here are the final table results and payouts…

1. Bryan Sumner – $913,986

2. Daniel Negreanu – $502,691

3. Young Cho – $257,058

4. Gary Kainer – $199,934

5. Thang “Kido” Pham – $171,372

6. J.C. Tran – $142,81

Here are the last four hands as recorded by CardPlayer.com…

118. Bryan Sumner has the button and limps in. Negreanu checks his option. The flop is the 866, Negreanu checks and Sumner fires $200,000. Negreanu calls and the turn is the 6. Negreanu leads for $200,000 and Sumner makes the call. The river is the 9, Negreanu checks and Sumner checks behind. Sumner shows a pair of eights to rake the first pot.

119. Daniel Negreanu has the button and limps in. Sumner checks his option and the flop is Q82. Both players check and the turn is the 6. Both players check again and the river is the 8. Both players check and Negreanu shows ace high to rake the pot.

120. Bryan Sumner has the button and raises to $300,000. Negreanu pushes all in for an additional $790,000. Sumner mucks and Negreanu takes the pot.

121. Daniel Negreanu has the button and pushes all in with A3 while Sumner calls with 88. The board comes the 8543Q giving Bryan Sumner the championship and the $25,000 WPT Championship seat