Hanging Out With Daniel Negreanu
I had the pleasure of being in a poker event with Daniel Negreanu last night. The bad organizers confirmed the night before a starting registration time of 5:30 PM, but when I got to Hamilton in time, it seems that they had opened registration very early and all the poker seats were long gone. 
I decided to stay for the evening and Daniel made it worth it. In his opening speech, Daniel promised that he will get to everyone in that full bar and he kept that promise. I stalked
him for much of the night, standing behind him as he circulated and played at every table. I saw some of his hole cards, saw how he kept winning pots, how he used a whole bunch of techniques to extract information or induce an action from the other players.
I gave him my Negreanu card protector to sign, then later my Negreanu timer (he first wondered why I was giving him a timer for!), then my hat, then later an Ace of Spades card. He was so accomodating that he would have signed all 52 cards of my deck had I requested it!Â
The lamest requests were all the people that asked him to talk on their cell phones. I read about how celebrities hate it when a fan idiotically tells them to talk to their friend/relative on the phone; what is a celebrity supposed to say to a total stranger they can't even see and who probably won't even believe that it is truly the celebrity talking?!
Unlike other celebrities, Daniel was able to get laughs out of the stupid requests.
Daniel was given twice the starting stack. Daniel kept busting a player or won pots at each table. As he rotated to another table, a giggling female pulled off an all-in bluff against him; she had an Ace overcard after the flop while Daniel was ahead with a pair of threes. She didn't show her cards after Daniel folded, but Daniel surprisingly peeked at her mucked cards. He joked that he would get her back at the final table.Â
In another hand, he induced an all-in female player into both showing one of their hole cards. She showed a Jack, while Daniel showed a nine. I asked him why he called her all-in when he only had a nine-high, and he explained why.
After playing at each table, Daniel took a break with a decent stack. When he played again, the antes and blinds had gotten much bigger and he busted out with two tables left.
When it was down to the final 8, Daniel was given 48,000 chips which was middle stack at the final table. After he made it to the final three, he raised on the button and said that the small blind had King, Nine. Amazingly, Daniel was right, he won the pot uncontested, and everybody clapped. Daniel answered questions about Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow and Phil Ivey; he also did funny impressions.Â
When it was down to heads up, Daniel had the shorter stack. In the final hand, there was an Ace and two spades on the flop, and both players checked. On the turn, there was another ace. Both players checked again. My read on Daniel was that he had an Ace and wanted to trap his opponent to double up. A low spade showed on the river. The opponent went all in, and Daniel immediately called. I was right and he had trip Aces, but unfortunately for him, his opponent caught the flush and won the tournament.
After he finally finished signing a lot more autographs, he offered me a high five. I wanted to ask him about his DVD, book, federal election, etc., but unfortunately, the stupidly scheduled live band had started playing and it was too difficult to have a conversation.
There was a film crew there from the Discovery Channel. It may be shown in March as part of a show called The Science of Gaming. I will be in most of the video and photographs as hovering over Negreanu.
I decided to stay for the evening and Daniel made it worth it. In his opening speech, Daniel promised that he will get to everyone in that full bar and he kept that promise. I stalked
him for much of the night, standing behind him as he circulated and played at every table. I saw some of his hole cards, saw how he kept winning pots, how he used a whole bunch of techniques to extract information or induce an action from the other players.I gave him my Negreanu card protector to sign, then later my Negreanu timer (he first wondered why I was giving him a timer for!), then my hat, then later an Ace of Spades card. He was so accomodating that he would have signed all 52 cards of my deck had I requested it!Â
The lamest requests were all the people that asked him to talk on their cell phones. I read about how celebrities hate it when a fan idiotically tells them to talk to their friend/relative on the phone; what is a celebrity supposed to say to a total stranger they can't even see and who probably won't even believe that it is truly the celebrity talking?!
Unlike other celebrities, Daniel was able to get laughs out of the stupid requests.Daniel was given twice the starting stack. Daniel kept busting a player or won pots at each table. As he rotated to another table, a giggling female pulled off an all-in bluff against him; she had an Ace overcard after the flop while Daniel was ahead with a pair of threes. She didn't show her cards after Daniel folded, but Daniel surprisingly peeked at her mucked cards. He joked that he would get her back at the final table.Â
In another hand, he induced an all-in female player into both showing one of their hole cards. She showed a Jack, while Daniel showed a nine. I asked him why he called her all-in when he only had a nine-high, and he explained why.
After playing at each table, Daniel took a break with a decent stack. When he played again, the antes and blinds had gotten much bigger and he busted out with two tables left.
When it was down to the final 8, Daniel was given 48,000 chips which was middle stack at the final table. After he made it to the final three, he raised on the button and said that the small blind had King, Nine. Amazingly, Daniel was right, he won the pot uncontested, and everybody clapped. Daniel answered questions about Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow and Phil Ivey; he also did funny impressions.Â
When it was down to heads up, Daniel had the shorter stack. In the final hand, there was an Ace and two spades on the flop, and both players checked. On the turn, there was another ace. Both players checked again. My read on Daniel was that he had an Ace and wanted to trap his opponent to double up. A low spade showed on the river. The opponent went all in, and Daniel immediately called. I was right and he had trip Aces, but unfortunately for him, his opponent caught the flush and won the tournament.
After he finally finished signing a lot more autographs, he offered me a high five. I wanted to ask him about his DVD, book, federal election, etc., but unfortunately, the stupidly scheduled live band had started playing and it was too difficult to have a conversation.
There was a film crew there from the Discovery Channel. It may be shown in March as part of a show called The Science of Gaming. I will be in most of the video and photographs as hovering over Negreanu.
Comments
???
WOW...you doing the editing?? I got the interviewer's name and contact info, and she took mine as she had a million of questions about the game and the craze...but most people like you were too busy Daniel to take advantage of the opportunities that were presented.
Seriously though, Daniel being there and being so open and available to everyone was fantastic. And my wife truly appreciated that Daniel took the time to talk to her on the phone (snootch!!) and sign a card for her....
Was anyone from here at the Full Contact Poker launch party at the Hardrock??
You a member over at FCP?
Ya its the same me, Where abouts are you located? A few of us FCP'ers from Ontario plan to get a casino trip going.
There have been a couple already, If you have time, PM me on FCP and i'll fill you in.
cheers
Saw him take a pot down with 23 offsuit!
I was impressed by how affable he was throughout the night.
-had him sign 2004 POY
Hey Royal Tour,
Yeah I'm on FCP. Ruxpinnah's the name. When are you guys going to the casino ? I may want to tag along. I'm in the east end of the GTA.
Later.
1) Won a bar finals with the Pirana Poker Tour to qualify for a U$1,000 championship tournament.
2) Played twice in Red Hot tournaments with over 80 players and made it to the final table both times, including a second place finish.
3) Played in a Poker Kings tournament twice and made it to the final table twice.
4) Reached the semi-finals of an NPT Quebec-Ontario challenge tournament and won a prize.
5) Played in a Pirana Poker Tour double points event and made it to the final table.
6) Next week, I will be playing in two Pirana regional tournaments to qualify for a U$10,000 seat and expense-paid trip to Las Vegas!
Thanks, Daniel!
YUUUUUP! sure was, some ass stole my hat!
He soon left our table, though, because it was "boring".
I made it down to the final 3 tables (I think 17 started or so?) and then my A9 ran into the ungodly 54 offsuit and I was eliminated. Oh well. I was glad I got to play with him; he was pretty nice.
I was REALLY angry at the people who run the bar though. They give out white chips equal to small blinds that you can use at any point in the tournament. You have to pay $5 in food or drink to get them, to a max. of 5. So after I ask about this promotion and the waitress tells me all about it, I buy $25 in food. Then when I pay and ask for my chips, they tell me there's a max they give out and they've reached that and I'm basically out of luck. I talk to someone who I guess is the manager or owner and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Yeah, I won't be going back there again.
Ryan
To be fair, he probably has a million more important things to do on a day when his bar is running a promotion like that than worry about some guy who didnt get his free poker chips.
The whole reason he hosts these things are to build clientele. You think DN is going to be popping in every week?
Brilliant move to piss off the guy that you are hoping comes back.
Obviously he doesnt want to piss off his customers. My point is that he probably had several other things to do to make sure it ran smoothly and that everyone didnt get pissed off. I'm sure thats worth the trade for one guy.
The night made for some good stories though:
Scene: sitting at work, with some buddys that play:
me: "So I'm playing poker with Negreanu last night, and I say, "hey Daniel,..." (dramatic name dropping pause)
buddies:" What do you mean, playin' poker with daniel last night? Ya on glue?"
me: "YA, did I stutter, I was playin' with him and..." (you know the rest, you have your own story)
ryangall just told 2282 people that the guy who owns the bar treated him like crap and may infact be an as*hole.
nice trade for "one guy"
Jay
Insurance. You can't encourage a guy to buy 30 beers to increase his stack, have him bust out of a freeroll in an hour and drive home.