Daniel Negreanu Joins David Tuchman on 888Ride

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888poker’s popular video series 888Ride continues to impress by bringing interviews with some of the most famous people in the poker industry and asking the questions fans have been eager to hear the answers to.

In the latest episode, David Tuchman took a ride with none other than Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, arguably the biggest name in the poker world right now.

The six-time WSOP bracelet winner joined for a ride through different parts of Las Vegas and talked about his early years in Toronto, coming up as a poker player in Las Vegas and beyond, and burning issues of modern poker world such as the Poker Hall of Fame and WSOP Player of the Year system.

From Pool Halls of Toronto to High Stakes Poker Games

It is well-known that Daniel Negreanu is a son of Romanian immigrants who moved to Toronto to give their family a chance at a brighter future.

The first part of the 888Ride interview with the GGPoker ambassador was spent talking about this period of time and the way Daniel came up in poker.

As many fans already know, Daniel started gambling at a very young age, and snooker was his game of choice in those early days, as he would frequent the pool halls in his early teens.

Daniel talked about his Romanian family and the love they had for him, and the European lifestyle that he was brought up in during those formative years.

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Growing up in Toronto, he got familiar with gambling early, as it was a gambling center of Canada in a way, and he fell in love with it right away.

From those early days of playing snooker with a handicap against players better than him, it took a few years before he transitioned into poker.

According to Daniel, the first time he played poker was with a group of friends from the pool halls, and the stake was just $10.

He quickly noticed that the same players seem to win most often, and that they were doing something differently, starting from their preflop hand selection.

Something clicked in Daniel’s head, and he had the poker bug right away. As the years passed by, this poker bug would take over Negreanu’s life and lead him down a path he could never have imagined.

Meeting Poker Legends in the USA

Daniel ventured out to Las Vegas as a young man looking for success, but failed a few times before finally making it big.

In the 888poker sponsored podcast, Kid Poker spoke of those early days of playing poker in the old Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Los Angeles, and meeting some of the biggest legends of the game today.

He named Huck Seed as one of the players who hung out with him a lot in those early days, and one who showed him the ropes and taught him a lot about the game and life.

From there, Daniel would end up meeting young John Juanda at a tournament in LA, who further introduced him to Alan Cunningham and Phil Ivey.

The four would become a poker brain-trust of sorts, traveling the circuit together, sharing their opinions on hands, and graduating to the top level players they all ended up becoming.

Daniel tells a funny joke about John Juanda, who apparently would criticize every play the other three made that ended up losing them the pot, regardless of the situation, painting a picture of an old-school poker pro who wanted to win every session he played.

The initial part of the 888Ride looks back at how poker used to be when Daniel Negreanu was building his life and his bankroll, and creates some nostalgia for those who were around at the time.

Daniel’s Ideas on Poker Hall of Fame and WSOP POY

The conversation steered away from Daniel’s early life and personal accomplishments, and he and David talked about a number of poker topics such as the Hall of Fame and WSOP POY formula.

On the WSOP POY, a competition that Daniel has won twice (and nearly a third time), Negreanu reiterated his opinion that the formula should be changed to stop rewarding players for dumping stacks in small buyin events.

Namely, by only counting the top ten results a player posts in a single WSOP, the formula would reward players for final table finishes more than min-cashes in massive field events, thus being more fair and painting a more realistic picture of one’s performances.

Speaking on the Poker Hall of Fame, Daniel said that he believes a number of players who are or should be in the HOF are players that the general public may not even know of.

He mentions players like Brian Rast and David Oppenheimer as generally more deserving of their positions in the HOF than many tournament players due to their longevity and ability to beat different games over prolonged periods of time.

Daniel also talked about creating a separate category for industry people and especially his belief that Isai Scheinberg should in inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame for his immense contributions to the game over the years.

What’s Next for Daniel Negreanu?

The World Series of Poker is just around the corner, and we are going to see Daniel Negreanu playing a hefty schedule, although one less intensive than he usually does during the summer.

Daniel’s plan is to focus on the bigger buyin events and the mixed-games championships and completely ignore some of the small buyin events.

However, when asked what’s next in his life, past the WSOP and this year, Kid Poker answered that he prefers not to think about that and would rather enjoy what he’s doing right now.

Indeed, Daniel has always been the kind of person who knows how to enjoy the moment, and that’s probably even more true now that he is a happily married man.

At the end, he did say that children could be something that comes next in his life, but that he is acutely aware of how that might change his life, which seems quite perfect at this time.

Whether Daniel Negreanu will become a dad or not anytime soon remains to be seen, but what we do know is that he will remain a high stakes poker player for many years to come.

You can keep track of his poker exploits very soon as new episodes of his yearly World Series of Poker VLOG start coming out in just a couple of weeks.