Thursday, May 17, 2007

Daniel Negreanu,One of Poker's best of the best

Poker players like golfers can be divided into three catagorize, duffers, good players, and the very best like Tiger Woods and the top players on the PGA circuit. In poker, Daniel Negreanu is one of the best of the best.

Negreanu was born in Toronto Canada July 26, 1974, and began playing poker in High School. He dropped out to play in the numerous illegal games in Toronto until he turned 21, when he moved to Las Vegas. After losing his bank roll he returned to Canada, rebuilt his stake and moved back to Las Vegas.

How good a player is Negreanu? As of the start of 2007, Negreanu has racked up nearly ten-million dollars in live tournament wins. In 1998 he won his first bracelet at the World Series of Poker, playing in the $2000 pot limit tournament. That win made him the youngest player to win a bracelet in WSOP history, an honor he held until 2004. That year he won the "Best Player" award at the World Series. Since then he has won two more WSOP bracelets. Three may not seem impressive until you realize, the best poker player in the world, Doyle Brunson has won only ten, and he was playing in the Series since before Negreanu was born. On The World Poker Tour he ranks third in the list of poker player of the year awards.

Daniel, known as "The Kid" plays in the highest limit games in Las Vegas and is a regular winner. His greatest strength is his ability to read his opponents hands. He regularity correctly predicts his opponent's cards before they are shown.

He has played in a number of televised poker events including "High States Poker" which featured a 100-thousand dollar minimum buy in. Negreanu bought in for a million dollars, lost nearly half of it during a run of bad luck, then won it back.

Unlike some of poker's other high limit players Negreanu is really a nice guy. In 2006 Card Player magazine named him "Favorite Poker player." He writes poker advice articles, He tutors other players and writes an advice column for Full Tilt Poker, an online poker site.

So how go of a player is Negreanu? You would have to play against him to find out, but most consider him one of the top ten players in the world.

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