Daniel Negreanu
Although he himself is Canadian
born and bred, Daniel Negreanu was born to Romanian parents who came to Canada
in 1967. Communism was ravaging the
Eastern European country at the time, and Annie and Constantin Negreanu
emigrated to Canada in search of a better life.
Merely 16, Daniel Negreanu
discovered an above-average attraction towards casino games, poker and pool. He
spent his time at illegal poker games and charity casinos in his home town of
Toronto, often playing against much more experienced opposition. His passion for
number-crunching and probability came in very handy though. Not only did he not
bust out of these games, his bankroll slowly began to swell, so much so, that
dropping out of high-school one credit short of graduation, seemed like a good
idea at the time.
As so many other great poker
players, soon he found that local games were no longer quenching his thirst for
competition and money. The move to Vegas however, seemed to be his undoing at
the time. Games there were much tighter, and the opposition was much better
prepared than he'd expected.
Having lost everything, he was
forced to move back to Toronto and start everything over. Situations like this,
are the ones that truly separate the men from the boys in this game. Being able
to bounce back after a devastating loss like that, is a mark of greatness, and
sure enough, Negreanu did just that.
Soon, his bankroll rebuilt, he
was ready to give it another shot. It all came together for him in 1997, when he
won two events at the Word Poker Finals, and walked away with $133,600. The WSOP
was next, and in 1998, he became the youngest ever WSOP bracelet winner, in the
$2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event, which also earned him $169,460.
Following that, all hell broke
loose. He won two WPT titles, he made 11 final tables, and finished in the money
13 times in the WPT. He also cashed in 26 times in the WSOP, won two more
bracelets, and made it as far as 11th place in the 2001 WSOP main
event.
Up until 2005, he had an
arrangement with Wynn Las Vegas to be their poker representative. He ended the
setup in 2005, and he opened his own poker skin, Full Tilt Poker, where he ran
some extremely interesting "protege" promotions. As of June 11 2007, he's part
of the Poker Stars Team, having demoted Full Tilt Poker to a blog and forum site.
In the meantime, he's become
somewhat of a TV star as well, being a regular at Late Night Poker, High Stakes
Poker and Ultimate Poker Challenge has certainly made him known not only all
over North America, but all over the world as well.
Daniel Negreanu : Poker Player
