Unless you’ve just started your poker adventure or have been living under a rock for the past two decades, you’ve probably heard about Daniel Negreanu. There are famous poker players, and there is Daniel. This Canadian of Romanian origin has been one of the most popular poker players in the world, if not the most. His best-known nickname is Kid Poker, but time flies fast, and Negreanu will soon turn 50. How has his eventful poker career looked so far?
Daniel started playing poker when he was 15
The exact beginnings of his poker career are unknown and probably will remain so, as they involve dropping out of high school and are likely to have involved a lot of illegal and underground games. Daniel took his first shots at the higher poker stakes soon after he built a decent bankroll in local games. In 1996, DNegs tried to conquer the mecca of all professional poker players and gamblers alike, Las Vegas, being only 22 years old. As surprising as it might be today, he didn’t succeed and had to return to Canada to recuperate after the losses.
He did not have to wait too long for a big score, though. Two years after his initial failure, in 1998, Daniel entered his first-ever World Series of Poker and managed to win his first bracelet in a $2000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. Moreover, he bagged almost $170k for his efforts and the title of the youngest WSOP bracelet winner to date. As it turned out, it was the first of many successes for Daniel Negreanu.
Five years later, in 2003, Kid Poker won another bracelet in the $2000 S.H.O.E event, but it was only a prelude to one of the best years in his career (at least poker-wise). In 2004, Daniel managed to not only win his third bracelet (this time in a $2000 Limit Hold’em event) and score enough cashes to win a Player of the Year title, but also win two World Poker Tour events for a combined prize of over $2.8 million.
Daniel Negreanu has been playing poker tournaments continuously for over 30 years
Since he became a widely known poker player, Daniel has been present at the most prominent poker stages worldwide. His consistency throughout his career is admirable; the best proof is his Hendon Mob profile.
Hendon Mob is a database tracking poker tournaments’ results from all over the world. Daniel’s profile contains several hundreds of results of paid places, dating back to 1997. Over 20 years of playing poker professionally, Daniel scored 225 cashes, one ring, and six WSOP bracelets, translating into over $21 million in the WSOP events winnings alone.
For years, DNegs was also in the running for the top spot on the all-time money list. He started 2023 in third place and recently managed to pass the milestone of $50 million total live tournament winnings, still competing for the prestigious title.
A great part of Daniel’s success is attributed to his entertaining personality, which greatly complements his undoubted skill. It’s a mix that poker fans consistently love, and as a result, Daniel was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2014.
Negreanu is a cash game player too
Over the years, Daniel made himself known as an avid cash game player too. Kid Poker has played in the widely acclaimed first few seasons of High Stakes Poker. He was also on the receiving end of one of the worst coolers televised to date:
Despite the stroke of bad luck in the first few seasons of the HSP, the appearances in the prestigious TV show cemented Daniel’s image of a smart and outspoken player who keeps the game entertaining. He presented himself as a great poker ambassador, which was quickly spotted by the most popular online poker site at PokerStars.
For 12 years, Daniel was a part of Team PokerStars Pro, which is most likely the longest sponsorship deal in the history of the industry. It was also one of the most fruitful collaborations in the whole of poker history. Admittedly, Daniel was never overly keen on playing online poker, but he made up for it with numerous live appearances at the live poker table.
Over time, Daniel has become an idol for many amateur poker players
It has been his biggest merit for most of his career. His chatty and friendly behavior won him a lot of fans. However, as with almost any public figure, some of Daniel’s actions have caused controversy.
By far, the biggest misstep in Daniel’s career was a “more rake is better” interview. This refers to a conversation that happened soon after one of many heavily disputed changes made by Amaya, new owner of PokerStars back then. In this interview, Daniel was trying to defend the controversial course the company had taken, arguing that with the higher rake, the games would become more recreational-player friendly.
This dubious thesis started a long, ongoing debate in the poker community. One of the most prominent critics of Negreanu’s stance at the time was Doug Polk. Polk is known for making straightforward comments on poker-related topics; things were no different in Daniel’s case. Both players were dissing each other back and forth for quite some time until finally, they decided to sort matters out once and for all through – how else? – a poker match.
An online poker community greatly anticipated the High Stakes Feud
Both poker pros agreed to play 25,000 hands at stakes of $200/400 with a $40,000 initial buy-in at each of the two tables. It’s worth noting that Daniel was perceived as a massive underdog in this match. Despite playing little to no poker before the match, Doug has made a name for himself as one of the best heads-up players in the history of poker.
Unluckily for Daniel, it turned out that Polk’s poker skills were as sharp as ever. The whole match took 36 sessions played over three months. Polk won convincingly, besting Kid Poker for $1,2 million, which translated to a solid win rate of 12BB/100 hands.
Despite losing severely, the match was not necessarily a complete disaster for Negreanu. Polk and the match commentators admitted that Daniel had improved by an impressive margin over the course of his heads-up sessions, changing his play style to one much more GTO oriented.
As pricy as this lesson could be, given how high he plays and how good Negreanu’s usual rivals are nowadays, it’s likely that it was well-spent money.
The average tournament buy-in for Daniel in 2022 was $30,136
How do we know that? Because Daniel has been sharing his annual results since 2013.
In 2022, Daniel profited over $1,6 million. It might not sound like a great result compared to his loss to Polk, but bear in mind that this number counts only tournament results, so it omits cash games, sponsorship deals, and other poker-related ventures.
To this day, Daniel is one of the most recognized poker players in the world
For years, his vocal, friendly, and outgoing persona has been a role model for amateurs worldwide, dreaming of a professional poker player career.
While becoming another Daniel Negreanu would be hard, if not impossible, becoming a poker pro is not. At Smart Spin, we brought together the best poker players, who developed a complete training process that can turn you into a professional player. It won’t be easy and won’t happen overnight, but we managed to do so with hundreds of players. Would you like to be next?