Daniel Negreanu

daniel-negreanu-300x200Daniel Negreanu, christened ‘Kid Poker’ after winning a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet at his first attempt, at the age of 23, in 1998, is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, tournament poker players in the world. At the time of writing, he has since won five more WSOP bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles; he currently lies second, behind only Justin Bonomo, in the all-time money list, with just over $40 million in live earnings. Negreanu won the WSOP Big One for One Drop, worth $8.3 million to the winner, in Las Vegas in 2014 and, in that same year, was named Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Decade and inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

Born in Toronto, Canada, to Romanian émigré parents, Negreanu first played poker in Las Vegas in 1995, at the age of 21, but needed to return home, more than once, to rebuild his bankroll, before achieving his breakthrough victory three years later. Between 2007 and 2019, Negreanu was a member of PokerStars Team Pro, in what was the highest-profile sponsorship deal in poker but, as recently as May, 2019 – shortly after his marriage to former PokerNews host Amanda Leatherman – announced that he had stepped down as a brand ambassador for the online poker room, in what he called an ‘amicable split’. On the subject of marriage, more recently still, Negreanu was involved in a Twitter feud with his ‘nemesis’ Shaun Deeb, which descended into infantile name-calling, followed by a prop bet on whose marriage would last longer.