Daniel Negreanu: AKA 'Kid Poker'

Canadian-born Daniel Negreanu, also known as "Kid Poker," is a 29-year-old, lighthearted, popular player, respected for always telling it like it is. One can usually find Daniel talking up a storm, speaking in any number of foreign accents and sitting on a pile of chips, grinning from ear to ear.

This year, Daniel joins an elite group of poker players who can lay claim to having won three or more World Series of Poker bracelets since the inception of the WSOP at Binion's Horseshoe 35 years ago.

Daniel is likely the only poker player to have won a coveted World Series bracelet under three different owners of the Horseshoe: Jack Binion in 1998, Becky Binion-Behnen in 2003, and Harrah's in 2004.

Under the ownership of Jack Binion, Daniel became the youngest WSOP winner ever when he won the $2,000 pot-limit hold'em event in 1998 at age 23. (That honor is now held by Gavin Griffin, who won a WSOP event this month at age 22.)

After what seemed like an eternity, in the end, Daniel was heads up against Dom Bourke. The last memorable hand almost caused Daniel to pass out! Bourke raised from the button in the small blind and Daniel reraised. Bourke called, to make a $108,000 pot. The flop was Q J 3. Daniel had the A Q and bet the pot. Bourke raised $47,000 more all in, and Daniel called. Bourke showed the J 10, for second pair and a flush draw.

Bourke needed a jack, a 10, any club, or runner-runner cards to make a straight. The turn was the 6 and the river was the 5. Daniel saw the black cards and went numb. He was in a daze and didn't even know that he had won until the crowd began cheering for him.

At the tender age of 23, Daniel's bankroll instantly exploded from $2,000 to about $200,000 after that memorable win.

In 2003, under the tenure of Becky Binion-Behnen, Daniel outplayed 135 entrants to win the $2,000 S.H.O.E. event, taking home $100,440.

S.H.O.E. is an acronym for four of the most popular poker games – stud, hold'em, Omaha eight-or-better, and eight-or-better stud. Daniel is particularly proud of this win because it demonstrates skill in four different poker games. He thinks that being a great poker player means having skill in all poker games, not just no-limit hold'em.

After a brutal three-hour heads-up match in which the chip lead went back and forth between Daniel and Arizonan Jim Pechac, Daniel finally captured the win and walked away with his second bracelet.

Prior to winning his third bracelet this year, Daniel made two other WSOP final-table appearances. In event No. 11, limit hold'em with a $2,500 buy-in, 237 entrants, and a $545,100 prize pool, Daniel placed seventh, taking home $21,800. In event No. 7, no-limit hold'em with a $1,000 buy-in and rebuys, Daniel took third. Of course, he did make 27 rebuys, but we will discuss that later.

In event No. 15, Daniel outplayed 287 players to win the $2,000 limit hold'em tournament and his third bracelet. The last few hours of play consisted of a well-fought battle between Daniel and neophyte Chris Hinchcliffe.

You might remember that Chris Hinchcliffe is that bighearted guy who was nearly broke when he turned $25 into $440,000 at the PartyPoker Million tournament and immediately bought his mom a much-needed automobile. Chris is a friendly, dynamic newcomer who is liked by everyone he meets.

Chris played a fine game of poker, earning praise from Daniel. "He's got such raw talent. When he gets some of the kinks out of his game, he's going to be an awesome talent – an absolute monster." In turn, when I was finally able to catch up with Chris, he said that it was an honor to play against Daniel. "Daniel is a great player. He's aggressive and intimidating. He's very good at what he does."

Chris also commented that at the final table, "It sure went Daniel's way." One cannot blame Chris for this sentiment, given the fact that the final hand was Daniel's K-2 against Chris' K-4 suited. When the dust settled, Daniel was the victor with two pair and Chris would have to be content with second-place money, $92,940. Predictably, Chris graciously shook Daniel's hand as the two young men congratulated one another.

There is something so unconventionally compelling about Daniel that one can't help but find his refreshing, inimitable style simply irresistible. When someone in the room is vociferously speaking with an impeccable Indian accent and you look up, it's Daniel! When someone is running in the poker room, laughing, telling secrets, and behaving like an impetuous child, it's Daniel. When someone is making his 34th rebuy, with a big playful grin upon his face, it is definitely Daniel.

Daniel has a reputation for making more rebuys than anyone else in the poker world. He confessed that the most money he ever spent in rebuys was $27,000. That is not a misprint, folks. Daniel invested a total of $28,000 (buy-in and rebuys) in event No. 7 of this year's WSOP, a $1,000 no-limit hold'em tournament with rebuys. There were 538 players, 534 rebuys, 262 add-ons, and a prize pool of $1,261,700. Phil Hellmuth came over and congratulated Daniel for having made more rebuys than Phil ever made.

Players were openly teasing Daniel, laughing at him and calling him an idiot for making so many rebuys. Daniel, always the good-timer, was laughing along with his buddies, chatting incessantly, all the while enjoying another game of poker.

At the end of the event, it was Daniel's turn to exact the teasing upon his friends, as he came in third, pocketing $100,940! It must have been fun asking those same naysayers how they fared at the end of the event while he was stuffing an extra $70,000 into his jeans pockets.

Daniel explains that there is an untamed wildness left over from his teenage years. "As a teenager, I played 40 hours a week. Being young and relatively inexperienced, I also had my battles with patience. Playing tight was just so boring to me! Yet, I knew that in order to win, I'd have to show some restraint.

"About once every four to six weeks, I'd declare what I called 'Party Day.' Party Day was loads of fun. For the eight-hour session on Party Day, I'd throw caution to the wind and raise with every remotely playable hand I got. Obviously, this probably wasn't all that smart, but the benefits I received from Party Day may have been well worth it. Those days taught me a lot about table image and controlling a game. As the 'maniac' in the game, I had more than a few people talking to themselves while all of a sudden calling three bets with J-3 offsuit!

"I was a complete maniac preflop, but what the other players failed to realize was that I made good decisions after that. I hardly ever bluffed beyond the flop, as I was certain to get called. Yet, I got called every time I made queens and fives, nines and fours, or what have you. Party Day would leave a lasting impression on my opponents for the next month, during which time I'd play my 'A' game. My opponents always remembered how 'bad' I'd played that day, and still played me as a maniac."

Daniel explains that the real benefit he received from Party Day was stress release. He just wanted to have some fun. Nowadays, Party Day in a big game would be a disaster. Instead, once in a while in a rebuy supersatellite or tournament, he will engage in his new version of Party Day: rebuying anywhere from 15 to 34 times, and playing wildly until he builds a huge stack. Just about the time Daniel reverts back to a solid game, his opponents think they have a read on him, which is their demise.

Daniel's record speaks for itself, as he consistently finishes in the money. In the first five months of 2004, he has already won more than $1 million.

Prior to 2004, Daniel had racked up so many wins and honors that even he could not keep track of them. To the best of his recollection, here are his wins prior to 2004:

$200(RB) limit hold'em, Heavenly Hold'em

$100 limit hold'em, World Poker Finals

$100 limit hold'em, World Poker Finals

$300 limit hold'em, L.A. Poker Classic

$500 limit hold'em, California State Poker Championship

$2,000 pot-limit hold'em, World Series of Poker

$200 stud/hold'em, Orleans Open

$200 Omaha eight-or-better, L.A. Poker Classic

$500 Omaha eight-or-better, Legends of Poker

$200 Omaha eight-or-better, Winnin' o' the Green

$300 limit hold'em, California State Poker Championship

$7,500 no-limit hold'em, United States Poker Championship

$300 stud eight-or-better, World Poker Challenge

$300 no-limit hold'em, L.A. Poker Classic

$1,000 seven-card stud, Legends of Poker

$1,000 Omaha eight-or-better, Four Queens Classic

$500 pot-limit hold'em, L.A. Poker Classic

$1,000 Omaha eight-or-better, L.A. Poker Classic

$300 stud eight-or-better, Legends of Poker

$500 Omaha eight-or-better, Legends of Poker

$1,000 no-limit hold'em, Legends of Poker

$500 no-limit hold'em, Linda Johnson Challenge

$1,000 limit hold'em, Hall of Fame

$2,500 limit hold'em, Hall of Fame

• Best all-around player award at Foxwoods in 1997 with back-to-back wins in limit hold'em

•Best all-around player award at the L.A. Poker Classic in 2002, cashing eight times

•Finished 11th in Nolan Dalla's 1998 Player of the Year Standings

•Finished third in Nolan Dalla's 1999 Player of the Year Standings, making six final tables in Omaha eight-or-better and winning three

•Finished eighth in the 2001 Card Player Player of the Year Standings

•12 major wins from 1997 through 1999 were the most by any player on the tournament circuit

Daniel is an open book and speaks honestly about his life. You probably noticed that he had no major wins in 2000. He describes that period of time as a tumultuous learning experience. He was not happy in his personal life and remembers that one night he drank so much that he awoke the next morning not knowing whether he had any money left in his safe-deposit box. That was an eye-opener. It wasn't a joke anymore, and that experience drastically woke him up.

Daniel does not regret any experience he ever had, seeing each moment as a learning experience. Thank goodness nothing horrible ever happened to him during this chaotic time.

He confesses that this last year has been the best year of his life. He believes that poker and life mirror one another, and that if you are happy in your personal life, your poker results and concentration will reflect your contentment. And Daniel is in love. He asked me if I remembered a line from the film As Good as It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson, when the main character says, "You make me want to be a better man." Daniel explains that this line describes precisely how he feels about his girlfriend, Lori. She makes him want to be a better man, and at 29, that is a great start for a successful, effervescent young guy.

As it happens, people are always asking Daniel about the biggest pot he has ever lost. Well, last year he lost a huge one, and at least survived to tell about it! Daniel teasingly explains that his choice of games must have been impeccable, as he sat down in a $2,000-$4,000 mixed game with Doyle Brunson, Lyle Berman, Johnny Chan, Chip Reese, Phil Ivey, and Chau Giang. He had played that limit a few times and had done well; he felt self-assured joining this world-class field.

Daniel's personality includes a strident confidence borne of youth, allowing him to move toward a difficult challenge rather than shying away from one. As a matter of fact, he explains that it is the confrontation with his personal limits that keeps his juices flowing and his spirits alive. He loves a challenge.

The game he chose to join that fateful evening required a seat belt! The game was a mixture of stud, Omaha eight-or-better, hold'em, deuce-to-seven triple draw, stud eight-or-better, and pot-limit Omaha, with a $75,000 cap. The cap meant that no player could lose more than $75,000 on any given hand. Daniel explains that as it turns out, the structure creates more action than it kills, because players are more willing to enter a pot when they know they can lose "only" $75,000.

Daniel found himself in a pot in which he was a 2-1 favorite with straight and flush draws against the legendary Doyle Brunson, who held two small pair. The two agreed to "run it twice," meaning that the dealer would put up a turn and river followed by a second turn and river so that the players could hedge their bets. One win meant winning half the pot. Daniel watched stoically as the first turn and river offered no help. To add to the misery, he watched a second turn and river that sealed his fate, finally giving him an answer to the oft-asked question: What is the biggest pot you ever lost? Answer: $156,000 to the renowned king of poker Doyle Brunson.

Daniel learned a valuable lesson in the first big tournament he won. It was Commerce Casino's annual Heavenly Hold'em tournament in 1997, and the game was limit hold'em. Not only was he an unknown, he did not have the edge of knowing any of his opponents.

Before he knew it, he was heads up with Eskimo Clark, who had a 6-1 chip lead. He had been battling fiercely all day and now was facing a brutal competitor who stared him down and kept pounding away. He felt discouraged when he heard people on the rail saying that Eskimo had won another one while the tournament was still going on.

After a two-hour melee, Eskimo stood up to converse with someone standing nearby. Daniel thought it was his backer, and he heard bits of the conversation. Eskimo said: "Let's cut the kid a deal," to which the backer responded, "Oh, come on; finish him off."

This conversation gave Daniel an instant jolt of confidence and energy, realizing that Eskimo was tired, fed up, and ready to be finished. It was the perfect psychological boost. Daniel explains: "The importance of psychological warfare was something I would be conscious of and use as a weapon from that point on."

Daniel spends considerable time analyzing the psychological aspects of the game of poker: "I realized how important it is not to look defeated, and never to let your opponents know that you are wounded. My position of no dealmaking has won me my fair share of tournaments.

"I can't tell you how many times I've been down to a threehanded game when both of my opponents have glanced over at the prize board to see the difference between second and third place. They were playing not to lose, while I was playing to win. They made it easy on me."

Daniel also believes that dealmaking could likely cause him problems if he agreed to a deal with one person and not another. That would create a conflict he prefers to avoid. He adds: "I'm not good at taking advantage of people, and I don't want them to try to take advantage of me, either. So, it just works better not to make any deals. Deals are not all bad, they're just not for me. If I can put financial pressure on my opponents, or show them that I'm afraid of nothing, that will only help me. Anything you can do to give yourself that extra edge should be exploited – as long as it is within the rules of poker and ethics."

When Daniel showed up for our interview, I invited him to join me in a nice meal. He opened up his backpack, displaying many appetizing snacks that his thoughtful mom had packed for the day. Mom lives in Canada but comes to visit Daniel for a few months each year, which is a highlight for him.

He chuckled as he explained what happened when he won his third bracelet a few days earlier. His mom really knows nothing about poker, and after watching Daniel for hours upon hours, she became hungry and went to the Horseshoe buffet for a bite to eat. The problem was that the moment she chose to go eat was precisely the same time that Daniel was about to win his third bracelet. There he was being crowned the winner while Mom was snacking on buffet rations. She finally heard all of the commotion and rushed in just in time to congratulate her successful son.

Daniel threw up his hands, laughing out loud and explaining jokingly: "I can't believe it. I finally get heads up, and that is the exact moment my mother gets hungry and chooses to run off to the buffet!" Daniel became solemn for a moment, explaining that he will always regret that his father, who passed away in 1996, never got to see him win a World Series event. On the other hand, he smiled contentedly, feeling blessed that his mom was there by his side experiencing his success firsthand while swallowing that last bite of a delectable buffet meal.