How Much Has Daniel Negreanu Won
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Daniel Negreanu is no ordinary poker player. Not only has he won the World Series of Poker six times, and two World Poker Tour championship titles, but – according to Global Poker Index – he is also the best poker player of the last decade. The Canadian star is on top of the Poker world, but here are a few things away from his skills at the poker table that you may not already know.
#1 Negreanu is of Romanian decent
Whilst “Kid Poker” was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1974, his parents had actually emigrated from Romania seven years earlier. Per his blog Full Contact Poker, Negreanu says that his father’s favorite place in the world was beside his pool, claiming that he spent so much time in the sun that he “looked Indian.”
Daniel Negreanu explains how poker pros can lose money despite cashing $2.7 million in a year. Revealing he had won over $2.7 million last year. That seems like a ton of money, right? When Daniel Negreanu accepted a challenge to play two tables of $200-$400 heads-up no-limit hold’em against Doug Polk for 25,000 hands, Polk trolled Negreanu by referring to himself as a truck. After banking $256,000 on Wednesday, Doug Polk completed his 25,000-hand heads-up challenge against Daniel Negreanu with a dominating $1.2m overall win.
But the star poker also says that his parents earned their more relaxed lifestyle in Canada due to the hardships that they endured in Romania.
They grew up in communist Romania, and his father got his first job when he was just 4-years-old – carrying water down a hill for $1 a week – whilst his mother was in hospital, and his father (Daniel’s grandfather) had already passed on. As for the “Kid Poker’s” mother, she was the youngest of ten children, in a family that lived in a house smaller than a typical kitchen. She would have to steal eggs from the neighbours as a source of food.
#2 Negreanu’s father killed a Nazi
In his own blog on FCP Daniel Negreanu told of how rough his parents had it as kids in 1930’s Romania, which included encounters with Nazis. The poker champion tells of how, when his father was just 6-years-old, a drunken Nazi soldier held a gun in his father’s mouth when he was “having some fun” with the youngster.
His father saw the whisky bottle in the Nazi’s hand so, with the gun still in his mouth, the six-year-old smashed the bottle and drove it into the drunken Nazi’s throat. He then bolted, and doesn’t know if the Nazi survived.
#3 Negreanu was chewed up and spat out by Las Vegas
That’s right, the greatest poker player of the last decade actually failed in his first attempt to conquer the Las Vegas strip.
After dropping out of education at the end of high school, due to not earning enough credits to graduate, Daniel Negreanu started as a rounder, playing at his local casinos, whilst looking for illegal games to participate in around Toronto – according to Poker Listings.
Once he had built up his fund, Negreanu, aged 22, hit The Strip, aiming to commence his career as a professional poker player. He played all the casinos but was ultimately sent back to Toronto with his tail between his legs, and with an empty bank account. So he moved back to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.
#4 Negreanu is a Philanthro-maniac
The star poker player, with all his millions of dollars in winnings, is a well known charity man, with many organizations and events to his name.
Alongside his regular attendance to charity events – such as the Darfur crisis charity Ante Up for Africa – Negreanu is also the founder of his own money raising events.
The Big Swing is an annual charity golf event, founded by “Big Poker”, in which poker players and celebrities team up for a doubles golf tournament. All participants donate $3,000 to the Lili Claire Foundation – a Las Vegas based charity that helps the families of children who are born with special needs, and the children themselves – with the event taking place at the Harrah’s Rio Golf Club.
#5 Negreanu has two protégés
Using his website Full Contact Poker, Daniel Negreanu launched the search for his first protégé, in 2006. The search involved an online poker competition, in which he would select a player whom he would attempt to forge into a world-class live tournament poker player. The prize also included Negreanu footing the bill for four events that required a $10,000 buy-in.
The tournament received hundreds of bidding poker stars, but in the end the winner of the first competition was Brian Fidler. Fidler found success in the same year of winning Negreanu’s protégé search, by coming second in the World Series of Poker circuit event, amongst a set of 110 players. Fidler took home $206,800 from that event.
“Kid Poker” found another protégé at the end of 2006, once again via Full Contact Poker, with Anthony Mak being taken under the world-star’s wing. Card Player records Mak’s most recent, and highest earning, win coming in April, 2012, where he raked in £18,900 in Jacksonville.
#6 Negreanu was Player of the Year without a first place finish
Given the record of the world class poker star, and the fact that he’s rated as the greatest player of the last decade, that fact that he has only been awarded Poker Player of the Year just once is quite peculiar.
The award is given out by ALL IN Magazine, with Daniel Negreanu being deemed worthy of the award in 2013. To earn the award and title of Poker Player of the Year, the Toronto native pulled in $1,837,344 in cash from 16 different events, in which he failed to win any.
His highest finishes came in Event24 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Eight Max in Monte Carlo on May 1st, where he placed second and cashed $791,649; and SCOOP-06-H: $1050 No-Limit Hold’em Draw on May 8th, where he also placed second but pulled in $15,330.
#7 Negreanu loves Warcraft
But not the World of Warcraft computer game that last recorded having about 5.5 million subscribers. No, Daniel Negreanu instead fills his Warcraft cravings on the Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft app. According to Forbes, the poker hero started playing in 2015 and began to stream his play on Twitch, whilst playing poker.
At BlizzCon 2015, in Anaheim – a convention hosted developers Blizzard to showcase their games and host tournaments – Daniel Negreanu played in a show match, for the Hearthstone World Championship, against Bertrand “ElkY” Grospeillier – who’s a fellow World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour champion.
The poker star match-up ended with Negreanu beating Grospeillier on Hearthstone by 3-1.
If you liked this, check out Negreanu’s tips on how to ace every poker hand…
Poker is one of the most revered games in the world and there are various versions to it including online poker games such as baccarat. A lot of establishments have been cropping up to provide poker players with a venue for their games. Just like in every game, there are those who partake of poker as a way to pass time and once in awhile earn money but for others, this is a full-time job. Professional poker players participate in organized tournaments to allow them put their skills to test. Over time, there have been some legendary poker players who have managed to make a whole career for themselves out of poker. Such players include Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu who both have Master Classes to teach other eager and young hopefuls of their ways in the poker world.
How Much Has Daniel Negreanu Won
Who is Daniel Negreanu?
How Rich Is Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Romanian- Canadian professional poker player who was born on July 26th, 1974 in Toronto Canada to Annie and Constantine who were emigrants from Romania. The Negreanus had initially wanted to settle in the US but found themselves in Toronto.
How Much Money Has Daniel Negreanu Won
Even at an early age, Daniel was very ambitious and even told his mother that he’d grow up to be rich. He attended the Pineway Public School in North York. While there, the principal had threatened to expel him because of his ill manners and ignoring school rules. Daniel learned how to play poker when he was 15 years old and by the time he was 16, he spent a considerable amount of time in pool halls playing cards. He dropped out of school, just some credits short of graduation, to pursue a life of poker playing at local charity casinos even earning the name Kid Poker due to his impressive poker skills.
After earning money from the illegal games he often partook in, he packed up and moved to Las Vegas at 22 to become a professional poker player. Some years later, he lost his money due to the various pleasures of the city of Vegas and had to move back home. Negreanu has won 6 WSOP bracelets and 2 World Poker Tour Championship titles. In 2014, Negreanu was recognized by Global Poker Index (GPI) which is an independent poker ranking service as the best poker player of the decade.
So how did Negreanu accumulate such wealth?
According to Casino, Daniel Negreanu is the 5th richest poker player in the world with a total of $50 million to his name. Most of his wealth has been earned through various poker tournaments including the World Series of Poker.
After he won in a WSOP tournament, the young poker player gained the courage to compete in other major tournaments. After he won at the US Poker Championship, he participated in another tournament that took place in Atlantic City where he won 2 prizes that amounted to a total of $379,000. Daniel’s first real win was in his first WSOP tournament which was accompanied by his first bracelet. He won a total of $169,000 in the Pot-Limit Hold’em Event in 1998 WSOP. This win saw him become the youngest bracelet winner in WSOP history. His most notable WSOP bracelet win has to be the 2013A No-Limit Hold’em main event where he won a total of $1, 038,825. In total, Negreanu has managed to get 6 WSOP bracelets and a WSOP circuit ring in 2006. Negreanu won the 4th annual British Columbia Poker Championships (BCPC) main event in November 2008 where he topped a field of over 650 players walking away with $229, 951 USD. In 2016, Negreanu won the cash prize of $1million in the 2016 Shark Cage tournament which was organized by PokerStars. Net. Negreanu’s total tournament winnings as of January 2020 exceed a whopping $42 million. $17 million of those winnings are from his 103 cash earnings from the WSOP tournaments.
Other sources
From his poker skills, Negreanu has managed to branch out into a mentoring program where he runs a protégé program. His first protégé was Brian Fiddler. He began the program in 2006 using Full Contact Poker to launch a competition that would select a protégé. A year later, Negreanu ran his second protégé competition where Anthony Mak won. He also became the pro spokesperson for Poker Mountain which is an online poker site in 2005. He used the name Kid Poker to play at this online card room but decided to terminate partnership with the site due to emerging software issues which he felt would eventually lead to the site getting shutdown. Negreanu has also played poker on various poker TV shows such as Poker After Dark, Late Night Poker and High Stakes Poker. He also served as a stand-in-host and the commentator in the show the Ultimate Poker Challenge.
Negreanu also appeared in the reality show Rob and Amber: Against the Odds which aired on Fox where he mentored Rob Mariano in his quest to become a pro poker player in 2007. A year later, he released a book titled Power Hold’em Strategy which bore a close resemblance to Doyle Brunson’s Super/System due to its contributions from other renowned poker players such as Evelyn Ng’, Todd Brunson and Erick Lindgren. He is also featured in the poker video game that was released in 2006 called Stacked with Daniel Negreanu where he provides tips and hints on how to become an effective player. Negreanu is also an online tutor having tutored online as part of the Poker School Online.
According to Best Casino Sites, he has also created a Master Class where he teaches poker theories and plays through video. He has made notable appearances in movies such as the X Men Origins: Wolverine, the Grand and in Katy Perry’s music video Waking Up in Vegas all of which he played a poker player. He also appeared in the movie Lucky You and made a cameo on the CBC program Mr. D where he appeared as himself. Additionally, in September 2005, he posed for a PETA vegan campaign.