Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu is a player who needs little introduction to the poker world. However, Negreanu himself did need an introduction to the world of high stakes online poker since he made his name through winning numerous live tournaments.
As his HighStakesDB chart indicates, Negreanu first got serious about playing online poker towards the end of 2010/beginning of 2011. Since taking up online poker, Negreanu has played most of his hands in $5/$10 - $100/$200 NLHE at PokerStars. The results haven’t been good since KidPoker has lost over $430k over the first several months of 2010.
Despite still being in a learning stage for high stakes online cash games, Negreanu accepted the ultimate challenge by playing Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown on March 20th.
KidPoker took the challenge very seriously since he practiced multi-tabling 4 tables (same as SuperStar Showdown) of $5/$10 NLHE against Randy “nanonoko” Lew and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo to prepare for Blom. He was initially very successful while playing against these two players in the lower stakes, but he lost a lot of money after moving up in stakes and practicing against Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky and “altiFC.”
The losses against Sulsky and altiFC foreshadowed what was to come against Isildur1 as Negreanu was beaten badly in their first matchup; he managed to lose his entire $150,000 buy-in in just 1,439 hands of $100/$200 NLHE (the SuperStar Showdown lasts for 2,500 hands unless one player loses $150k).
Showing some resiliency, KidPoker faced Blom in a rematch, only to find himself down over $120k after 1,200 hands. However, Negreanu staged an incredible comeback as he managed to slowly chip away at Isildur1’s insurmountable lead. With just 141 hands left, Negreanu took the lead and didn’t look back as he finished with a $26,500 win.
As we mentioned before, Negreanu is best known for his live tournament accomplishments. He has four WSOP bracelets, two World Poker titles, and is ranked second in all-time live poker winnings with $14,125,191.
Away from the felt, Negreanu is one of the few players who’ve been able to transcend the poker world and cross over into mainstream fame. He’s appeared in the movies X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Grand and Lucky You, the TV show Sports Science, and the Katy Perry music video Waking Up in Las Vegas.