Six-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (pictured) is the star of a new documentary called “KidPoker”, a film which follows the Toronto native’s life from pool hustler to poker legend. Like any good celebrity with a project to promote, Negreanu took some time out to answer questions from fans in a Reddit AMA, during which he was predictably candid.
Negreanu started off with a bit of advice on poker tells, telling “Pardonme23” that the most common tell given off by amateurs is “glancing at their chips quickly when they like a flop.”
In fact, he lends a lot of weight to his intuition at the tables, saying that while online poker is more convenient, he prefers live, where he can base his decisions “on the person rather than the numbers.” And speaking of online gaming, when asked for his thoughts on daily fantasy sports sites being legal in the US, while online poker is still mostly prohibited, he responded, “It’s silly of course.”
In another comment, user “Chrisortiz” asked Negreanu if it was “obvious to everyone how [Black Friday] was an orchestrated move for the US-based casinos to control the online poker market.” He responded that he didn’t think that US casinos were the culprit and instead blamed the NFL, which pushed to ban iGaming while securing a fantasy sports carve-out for itself in the UIGEA.
Conversation soon turned back to more hard-hitting questions like what procedure Negreanu went through to regrow his hair. “Ha! Pretty common procedure these days,” he replied. “Just moved it from the back of my head to the front! Ever see anyone bald on the side or the back? Nope. That hair is strong like bull.”
The Toronto native has been known to ruffle feathers, but his animosity towards former Ultimate Bet pro Annie Duke (pictured) is legendary. “Easy question. F***, Marry, Kill: Liv Boeree, Joanna Krupa & Annie Duke?” asked “Ohcowboy12go.”
“You couldn’t have possibly made this any easier,” he responded. “Marry Liv, she is smart and cool; F*** Joanna Krupa, she is Joanna Krupa; Kill Annie Duke, gladly. She is awful lol.”
Negreanu has recently taken an interest in the fantasy card game Hearthstone, playing it nearly every day for an average of 25 hours per week. He recently took on poker pro Bertrand ElkY Grospellier, who signed to an eSports organization this month, in a Hearthstone exhibition match at this year’s BlizzCon.
Uncharacteristically, though, the pair didn’t seem to have any money on the game. “We bet that if I lost, I had to go to PCA in an Annoy-A-Tron outfit, and since he lost he is going as Sludge Belcher,” he said.
Who does the six-time bracelet winner have the most fun playing against? “Phil Hellmuth (pictured). He is quite a character and beating him in a hand creates a lot of fun. I can’t help but laugh at him. He is out there,” he said.
Moving right along, “GojiraKid” wanted to know who Negreanu would switch poker skills with if given the chance and who would he like to see inducted next into the Poker Hall of Fame. “Phil Ivey” and “Phil Ivey,” Negreanu revealed.
On the topic of Ivey, another poster wanted to know if the high-stakes legend was as intense in person as he seems to be while playing poker. “Not at all,” he said. “He is actually hilarious and a ton of fun to hang out with.”
To find out more about Negreanu’s life and rise in the poker world, be sure to catch his upcoming documentary on TSN4 on December 1.
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