Daniel Negreanu has been one of the biggest stars in poker for over 20 years. He's a legend in this game for many reasons and arguably the most popular poker player of all-time. The GGPoker ambassador has over $52 million in live tournament cashes, six World Series of Poker bracelets, and two World Poker Tour titles. His poker resume is almost unbeatable.
Who is Daniel Negreanu?
Daniel Negreanu is a poker player from Toronto, Canada who moved to Las Vegas in the early 2000s to chase his dream of being a professional poker player. The move turned out to be a smart decision because he went on to make millions of dollars in this game, as a player and an ambassador for multiple major poker sites. Away from the felt, he's an avid hockey fan. Growing up, he was a hardcore fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, his hometown team. But he helped bring the Golden Knights to his new home, Las Vegas, in 2017, so he changed his allegiance.
Daniel Negreanu biography
Daniel Negreanu was born on July 26, 1974 in Canada and had a tumultuous childhood. He never took school seriously and dropped out before graduation. But he stayed out of trouble and chose a better path in life following high school. In his early 20s, he moved to Las Vegas to pursue a career as a professional poker player and quickly became one of the best in the game.
Before the poker boom era in 2003, he was already crushing the high stakes cash games in Las Vegas at Mirage and then when the game moved, Bellagio. Dubbed 'Kid Poker', Negreanu has always had a knack for reading his opponents and an ability to charm an audience. That’s why he's long been one of the game's top ambassadors.
PokerStars and WSOP
In 2007, he signed on as the lead ambassador at PokerStars, the world's most popular poker site. He continued in that role for 12 years before seeking new opportunities. It was a surprising move given PokerStars paid him millions of dollars over the years. Six months later, he signed on with GGPoker, an up-and-coming poker site, and is now the face of that company.
Negreanu won his first WSOP bracelet in 1998 in a $2,000 pot-limit hold'em tournament. Since then, he's won five additional bracelets but none since 2013. During the 2004-2005 WPT season, DNegs won two World Poker Tour titles, including the prestigious Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1.8 million. In total, he has over $52 million in live tournament cashes, good for seventh all-time.
Negreanu is a true poker celebrity and is considered one of the game's top ambassadors. In that unofficial role, he's often called upon to emcee charity poker events and has helped raise millions of dollars for various causes over the years. In 2017, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, but he still has many great years ahead of him.
Daniel Negreanu poker accomplishments
Negreanu is one of the most accomplished poker players ever. He's won six WSOP bracelets, two World Poker Tour titles, and was a beast in high stakes cash games in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Kid Poker is one of the few players who have crushed it on the felt for multiple decades. His biggest cash was when he finished runner-up to Daniel Colman in the 2014 $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop for $8,288,001.
Even approaching his 50s, he's still having success. During the 2020 WSOP Online Bracelet Series, he cashed in 37 of the 85 events. But his crowning achievement as a poker player is his 2017 Poker Hall of Fame induction.
Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk
In November 2020, Negreanu and his long-time rival Doug Polk began a 25,000-hand heads-up no-limit hold'em online challenge. Polk, the heavy favorite, ended up winning the match by $1.2 million, the equivalent of 30 buy-ins ($40,000 per buy-in).
Despite the defeat, Negreanu earned some respect from Polk and the poker community for taking on the challenge against arguably the top heads-up player in the world. And also for playing at a higher level than most expected. Although DNegs is one of the all-time poker greats, he's never spent much time playing heads-up poker.
Throughout much of the match, Negreanu was competitive. The final tally wasn't so impressive, but much of that was due to Kid Poker being extra aggressive during the final two sessions as he was desperately trying to make up for a massive deficit. Polk said afterwards that he was surprised with how well Negreanu played and said his opponent greatly improved throughout the challenge.
