Daniel Negreanu (; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player of Romanian descent with four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is ranked second in the all-time career earnings list behind Phil Ivey All Time Money List, Top 143551: Hendon Mob Poker Database and is also currently the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge.
Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario. His parents, Annie and Constantin, left the old Communist regime of Romania in 1967, looking to start a new life in the United States. They ended up settling in Toronto instead, where Constantin found work as an electrician and sweets seller. They soon started a family, Daniel arriving five years after his older brother. It was a supportive environment, even when it became clear Daniel was destined for an unconventional lifestyle. While nursing dreams of a career as a professional snooker player, the 15-year-old learned how to play poker. By 16, he was spending time in pool halls, hustling, sports betting, and playing cards. 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, usually at Casino Country and Fundtime Games, 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 22 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.
In August 2005, he married Lori Lin Weber and they later separated in November 2007. He resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Negreanu has a blog at Full Contact Poker where he posts his thoughts and feelings about different things in life, politics, the poker world and everything. He is also a heavy NHL fan once claiming on Poker After Dark at the dream table he was thinking of declining the offer because the tournament was in the middle of hockey season. He is often seen wearing NHL jerseys of the Toronto Maple Leafs and other teams. Daniel became a vegetarian in 2000, he has been vegan since 2006. After many years living in the USA, he received his green card on July 15, 2009. On November 23, 2009 Daniel's mother died in her sleep after being ill for many months.
Philanthropy
Negreanu has a personal history of philanthropy. In addition to frequent appearances in charity events, such as “Ante Up for Africa”, which raises money for crisis-torn Darfur, Negreanu is the founder of the annual “Big Swing” charity golf event. Daniel Negreanu's Big Swing - Benefiting The Lili Claire Foundation
The first annual Big Swing event was held on June 25 at the Harrah’s Rio Secco Golf Club. Professional poker players Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren were among the celebrity poker players paired with foursomes who had donated $3,000 to the Lili Claire Foundation. The Lili Claire Foundation is a Las Vegas charity that serves children born with special needs and their families. Negreanu unveils charity golf tournament - Poker News
Negreanu is an extremely accomplished tournament and cash game player. Negreanu has amassed 4 WSOP, 2 WPT titles, numerous WSOP and WPT final tables, as well as various other tournament titles. Negreanu's most successful year came in 2004 when he was named the Card Player Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu Bio - Poker Player - CardPlayer.com and the WSOP Player of the Year. Player Info, Winnings & Bracelets | Official World Series of Poker He was also named the 2004-05 WPT Player of the Year. WPT | Daniel Negreanu In 2006, Negreanu was named "Favorite Poker Player" at Card Player Magazine's Player of the Year Awards Gala.
Negreanu is a regular at the big game in Bobby's Room, in the Bellagio casino, Las Vegas, where the limits are $4,000-$8,000 or greater and the games are mixed. 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, Negreanu explained that the most important skill he employs is observing what hands his opponents play and how capable they are of playing them.
Live poker
Tournaments
Negreanu burst onto the tournament poker scene in 1997 with 3 tournament wins including two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, earning $55,064 as well as being named the tournament's best all-around player.
As of May 2010, his total live tournament winnings are recorded at $12,583,677, second on the all time money list. His 43 cashes at the WSOP account for $3,309,349 of those winnings. He is also the leading money winner on the WPT circuit.
World Series of Poker
Negreanu's first in the money finish at the WSOP also happened to be his first WSOP bracelet. Negreanu won $169,460 in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event in the 1998 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and became the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history — a record he held until 2004. Negreanu has since captured another 3 bracelets. He has 23 career WSOP final table appearances, including 2 at the WSOP Europe, and 47 money finishes.
World Poker Tour
Other notable tournaments
In 1997, he won two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, earning $55,064 as well as being named the tournament's best all-around player.
In November 2008, Negreanu won the fourth-annual British Columbia Poker Championships main event, topping a field of 690 players (a personal high for Daniel), and earning $371,910 CAD ($299,951 USD).
Cash games
In addition to Negreanu's regular appearances in the big game at Bobby's Room, he has played in all six seasons of High Stakes Poker.
Online poker
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 agreed to 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.
In June 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.
Negreanu is currently enduring a personal bankroll building challenge on PokerStars. He started with $10 and his goal is to increase it to $100,000. Daniel Negreanu's $10 Challenge - PokerStars Poker Blog
Other poker activities
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.
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 Against the Odds, in which he mentored reality television personality Rob Mariano in his bid to become a professional poker player.
In May 2008, Negreanu's book Power Hold'em Strategy was released. The book resembles the Doyle Brunson book Super/System in that it has contributions from several other poker players, including Evelyn Ng, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wasicka, Todd Brunson and David Williams. Negreanu's section presents and explains the strategy of small ball poker. At the same time he started a poker teaching site called Poker VT. Negreanu is also featured in the 2006 poker video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, providing tips and hints as to how to play effectively. 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.
Negreanu made cameo appearances as a poker player playing against the mutant Gambit in the film Wolverine as well as a poker player in The Grand, and as himself in the film Lucky You. On Season two of Sports Science, Daniel attempts to show if a professional poker player can bluff a lie detector. He also appeared in Katy Perry's music video for "Waking Up in Vegas", also as a poker player.
