Nicknamed ‘kid poker’, Daniel Negreanu is a poker professional with 4 WSOP bracelets, 2 WPT titles and two money finishes in the EPT. Born in 1974, in Toronto, Canada, Negreanu was attracted to poker at the age of 16 and went on to become a professional player at the age of 22. Negreanu is a part of team PokerStars, alongside other pros like Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem. He has also participated in several poker reality TV shows and authored a book called ‘Power Hold’em Strategy’, which was released in 2008.
Besides being a professional poker player, Daniel is also a philanthropist and the founder of the charity golf tournament, the Big Swing.
The Beginning
As a teenager, Negreanu was an aspiring snooker player. But when he discovered poker along the way, he changed his mind. At the age of 18, he shifted his focus entirely to poker, after dropping out of high school, with just one credit needed for graduation. From then on, Negreanu spent a lot of time playing poker at charity casinos, illegal gambling hubs around Toronto and doing odd jobs for money. At 21, he finally had enough money to go to Vegas and try his hand at tournament poker. After a depressing stint of 7 months there, he returned to Toronto and focused on improving his game play.
Negreanu entered the tournament poker scene in 1997, when he won three events including two at the World Poker Finals held at Foxwoods. His earnings at the event were more than $55,000, which earned him the tag of the best all-round player of the tournament. That was just the beginning of a lucrative poker career that Negreanu had always dreamed of.
WSOP and WPT
Daniel Negreanu had managed to make his mark in two of the most prestigious poker events, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT). In 1998, Negreanu entered the WSOP and won the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em, which earned him a bracelet and $169,460 in cash. After a gap of 5 years, he went on to win his second WSOP bracelet for the $2,000 S.H.O.E event in 2003, winning $100,440 in cash. Negreanu won his 3rd WSOP bracelet in 2004, for the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event and his fourth, again for the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event, in 2008.
2004 was a very good year for Negreanu, when he won a WSOP bracelet and two of his WPT titles. The poker professional won his first WPT title by clinching the $10,300 Borgata Poker Open and taking home a cash prize of over $1 million. His second WPT title was for the $15,000 Five Diamond World Poker Classic, which also bagged him a cash prize exceeding one million dollars.
Although he has not yet claimed a title win at the European Poker Tour (EPT) he managed two money finishes and reached the final table twice, pocketing $1,268,190. At present, Negreanu’s total earning from poker, both online and offline, exceeds $16,170,000.
Online Poker Career
Negreanu’s affair with online poker began in 2005, when he opened his own cardroom on Full Contract Poker, his official website. Two years after that, Daniel Negreanu officially became a member of Team PokerStars and represents the biggest online poker room even to this day. Although Negreanu does not spend a lot of time playing poker online, he does have his own blog and even offers poker lessons through PokerStars and his official site, Full Contract Poker. This is an informational site and houses an online forum for poker fanatics.