Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu
b. July 26, 1974
Canadian Daniel Negreanu seemingly “burst” onto the professional poker scene at a young age, but he has already lived an up and down poker life that has taken him to Vegas and back home, several times over.
Born in Toronto to Romanian immigrants looking for a better life to raise children, Negreanu got his start in poker by hustling cards in pool halls at sixteen-years-old.
Negreanu dropped out of high school one art credit short of graduation to pursue playing cards professionally.
He played poker in various charity casinos and gambling halls throughout Canada until he turned twenty-one, when he packed up all his belongings and his bankroll and moved to the gambling Mecca, Las Vegas. Negreanu quickly realized that the City of Lights was a much different place to play cards than Toronto.
He busted his bankroll fairly quickly and moved back home to start rebuilding it. This cycle of winning in Canada and losing in Vegas repeated itself several more times.
It took Negreanu hundreds of hours of study and playing to finally crack the Vegas losing streak. In 1997, he was named the “Best All-Around” player at the Foxwoods’ World Poker Final.
In 1998, he entered his first World Series of Poker and won the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em event, making him the youngest player at the time to win a WSOP bracelet and earning him the nickname, “Kid Poker.”
Negreanu is often sought out for televised poker commentary because of his youthful energy mixed with a soft-spoken delivery. He is also an avid author of poker advice. He has penned more than 100 articles on poker strategy for Card Player Magazine alone, and wrote a chapter for Doyle Brunson’s Super/System 2.
Negreanu has also written his own books on strategy, including Hold ‘em Wisdom for All Players, compiling a Doyle-esque Power Hold ‘em Strategy book, and has a forthcoming sequel titled More Hold ‘em Wisdom for All Players.
Currently Negreanu is one of the most winning tournament players in the world, with a total of over $10,100,000, behind only Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem and Phil Hellmuth Jr.
He is also one of the most giving players in the way of education. He has mentored many young poker pros, taught lessons to countless celebrities, and even has his own video game, Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, which provides tips and hints for high-stakes poker.
Negreanu is widely known for his openness. He maintains a blog at Full Contact Poker, in which he espouses his political views and diet preferences.
He has been a committed vegan since 2003, and has come out in support of Al Gore and Barack Obama as presidential candidates. He is a die-hard fan of the NHL, especially of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and one can often see him wearing one of their jerseys at the final table. All this seems to make Negreanu one of the most personable poker professionals on the circuit today.
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