Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu (born July 26, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian professional poker player.

Early life

Daniel Negreanu’s parents, Annie and Constantin, moved to Canada from Romania in 1967. When he was several credits short of graduation, Daniel dropped out of high school and began his life as a rounder playing at the local charity casinos and looking for illegal games around the city. While in Toronto, Daniel met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building up his bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 21 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional poker player. However, “The Strip” got the better of him and he was forced to move back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.

Poker career

In 1997 his luck began to change when he won two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, earning himself $133,600 as well as being named the tournament’s best all-around player. Negreanu followed this triumph in the 1998 World Series of Poker by winning $169,460 at the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event and becoming the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history — a record he held until 2004.

Over the next few years, he became one of the most successful poker tournament players in history, winning two (WPT) events, another two World Series bracelets, and appearing at 11 final tables. He was also named the World Poker Tour World Series of Poker player of the year in 2004 and World Poker Tour player of the year in 2005.

Upon opening, the Wynn Las Vegas resort recruited him as their “Poker Ambassador” to play for any stake in their poker room. The arrangement lasted until October 2005 when he opted out because it was restricting his ability to play for high stakes outside the Wynn. In December 2005, he started his own online poker cardroom “skin” site on his official site, Full Contact Poker, which also includes his blog and a variety of poker forums. He played at his cardroom under the screen name “KidPoker”. In 2006, he used Full Contact Poker to launch a competition to select a protege, whom Daniel would attempt to mold into a world-class live tournament poker player. In addition, he would pay the protege’s entry fee into four $10,000 buy-in events. Daniel’s first protege was Brian Fidler. In 2007, Daniel ran a second protege promotion, which was won by Anthony Mak.

On June 11, 2007, Negreanu signed with PokerStars, joining Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and many other professional poker players as a member of Team PokerStars. His Full Contact Poker site has since returned to being a forum and informational site.

Daniel has been a regular at the big game in Bobby’s Room, in the Bellagio casino, Las Vegas, for several years. He is a self-admitted action junkie who always seeks new challenges and sets high goals for himself, not only at the poker table but also on the golf course. Unlike many other players, he is very outspoken about his poker results and regularly posts updates in the forums at the Full Contact Poker website.

Some of Negreanu’s success is attributed to his ability to read opponents. When asked about this skill, Negreanu explained that the most important skill he employs is observing what hands his opponents play and how capable they are of playing them.

He has written over 100 articles for CardPlayer Magazine and contributed to Doyle Brunson’s revised book, Super System II. He has tutored on the web as part of Poker School Online and also personally given lessons to celebrities such as Tobey Maguire. In addition, it was announced in early 2006 that Negreanu had assembled a team of “Superstar Contributors” to write a book called Daniel Negreanu’s Power Hold’em Strategy. Modeled after Brunson’s Super/System, the book delves into every aspect of hold’em, and is due to be released in early 2008.

Negreanu has played poker on various TV shows such as Late Night Poker, Poker After Dark, and High Stakes Poker, as well as serving as a commentator and stand-in host on Ultimate Poker Challenge. He also appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. In January 2007, Negreanu appeared in the Fox Reality original series Rob and Amber: Against the Odds in which he mentored reality television personality Rob Mariano in his bid to become a professional poker player.

Negreanu was named “Favorite Poker Player” at Card Player Magazine’s Player of the Year Awards Gala in February 2006.

Negreanu is also featured in the 2006 poker video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, providing tips and hints as to how to play effectively.

As of January 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $9,650,000, behind only Jamie Gold and Joseph Hachem. He is the 2nd all-time leading money winner on the WPT circuit, recently passed by Carlos Mortensen in April 2007 at the WPT Championship. With a 2nd place finish at the World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi, Negreanu has now cashed in a record 4 consecutive WPT events (which has since been tied by Kirk Morrison), and ties John Juanda in total WPT cashes with 14. He has the highest tournament earnings of any individual who has not won a WSOP Main Event.