Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player who has won seven World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour championship titles. In 2014, independent poker ranking service Global Poker Index recognized Negreanu as the best poker player of the previous decade.
, he has the seventh-highest live tournament poker money winnings of all time, with million. He was named the WSOP Player of the Year in 2004 and 2013, making him the only player to receive the accolade more than once. He was also the 2004–2005 WPT Player of the Year. He is the first player to make a final table at each of the three WSOP bracelet-awarding locations, and the first to win a bracelet at each. In 2014, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
Early life
Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1974, seven years after his parents, Annie and Constantin, emigrated from Romania. He can speak Romanian fluently. The Negreanus had hoped to start a new life in the United States but ended up settling in Toronto where Constantin worked as an electrician and sold confectionery. Daniel is five years younger than his brother Mike. At an early age, Negreanu was ambitious, stating in a 2009 interview "From the age of four, I thought I'd be rich. I told my mom I'd build a house out of Popsicle sticks and move to California."He attended Pineway Public School in North York, where the principal complained to his mother about Daniel's "poor manners or behavior" and threatened to expel him for "ignoring the school rules." While nursing dreams of a career as a professional snooker player, the then 15-year-old learned to play poker. At the age of 16, he was spending time in pool halls, hustling, betting on sports, and playing cards.
When he was several credits short of graduation, he dropped out of high school and began his life as a rounder playing at local charity casinos, usually at Casino Country and Fundtime Games and looking for illegal games around the city. While in Toronto, he met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building a bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 22 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional poker player. However, "The Strip" got the better of him and he was forced to move back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.
Poker career
Negreanu is an accomplished tournament and cash game player. He has seven World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour championships. He has also reached multiple WSOP and WPT final tables and won various other tournament titles. Negreanu was named the 2004 Card Player Player of the Year and the WSOP Player of the Year. He was also named the 2004-05 WPT Player of the Year. In 2006, Negreanu was named "Favorite Poker Player" at Card Player Magazine's Player of the Year Awards Gala. In 2013, he captured two WSOP bracelets and another WSOP Player of the Year award, becoming the only player to win the award twice. In November 2014, Negreanu was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.Negreanu has regularly played the "Big Game" in Bobby's Room, in the Bellagio casino, Las Vegas, where the limits are $400–$800 or greater and the games are mixed. He is a self-professed action junkie who claims to always seek new challenges and set high goals for himself. Unlike many players, he is outspoken about his results and regularly posts updates in the Full Contact Poker forums. Some of Negreanu's success is attributed to his ability to read opponents. When asked about this, Negreanu explained that the most important skill he employs is observing what hands his opponents play and how capable they are of playing them.
Tournament poker
World Series of Poker
Negreanu's first cash at the WSOP was also his first WSOP bracelet. Negreanu won $169,460 in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event in the 1998 World Series of Poker, becoming the youngest WSOP bracelet winner - a record he held until 2004. Negreanu has since captured another six bracelets, including the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2024. He has 36 career WSOP final table appearances, including two apiece at the WSOP Europe and at the WSOP Asia-Pacific, and 103 money finishes.| Year | Tournament | Prize |
| 1998 | $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em | $169,460 |
| 2003 | $2,000 S.H.O.E. | $100,440 |
| 2004 | $2,000 Limit Hold'em | $169,100 |
| 2008 | $2,000 Limit Hold'em | $204,874 |
| 2013A | A$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event | A$1,038,825 |
| 2013E | €25,600 High Roller No Limit Hold'em | €725,000 |
| 2024 | $50,000 Poker Players Championship | $1,178,703 |
An "A" following a year denotes bracelet won at the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific
An "E" following a year denotes bracelet won at the World Series of Poker Europe
In addition to his 7 bracelets, he also won a WSOP Circuit ring in 2006. After winning the tournament, he explained his strategy and provided some insights into his play: "I had a strategy designed for each individual player and pretty much followed it at the final table. The key to winning for me is that I stayed out of marginal situations. I don't want to get into a race with 6-6 against A-K and hope to stay alive. I think what I am best at is playing after the flop, and I wanted to get as many situations as I could where I was up against and could take them on after the flop. My goal is to see the most flops I can. I like to set traps. I let get involved, and then trap them. If I get them drawing dead - that's always the plan."
World Poker Tour
| Year | Tournament | Prize |
| 2004 | $10,000 Borgata Poker Open | $1,009,100 |
| 2004 | $15,000 Five Diamond World Poker Classic | $1,795,218 |
Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)
| Year | Tournament | Prize |
| 2013 | $5,200 PL Omaha | $216,000 |
World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)
| Year | Tournament | Prize |
| 2016 | $2,100 HORSE Championship $200K GTD | $61,865.47 |
PokerGo Tour
| Year | Tournament | Prize |
| 2021 | PokerGO Cup #7 - $50,000 NLH | $700,000 |
| 2021 | Poker Masters #5 - $10,000 NLH | $178,200 |
| 2022 | PokerGO Cup #6 - $25,000 NLH | $350,000 |
| 2022 | Wynn High Roller #2 - $15,300 NLH | $216,000 |
| 2022 | Super High Roller Bowl VII - $300,000 NLH | $3,312,000 |
| 2024 | PGT Last Chance #1: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em | $218,400 |
| 2024 | PGT PLO Series #3 - $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha | $147,500 |
| 2024 | WSOP #58 - $50,000 Poker Players Championship | $1,178,703 |
| 2024 | PGT PLO Series II #6 - $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha | $265,200 |
| 2025 | PGT Mixed Games #6: $15,200 Dealer's Choice | $292,500 |
| 2025 | PGT PLO Series #3: $5,100 Pot-Limit Omaha | $182,850 |
Other notable tournaments
Negreanu's first major successes on the tournament poker scene came in 1997 with three tournament wins, including two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Resort Casino, earning $55,064.In November 2008, Negreanu won the fourth-annual British Columbia Poker Championships main event, topping a field of 690 players, and earning $371,910 CAD.
In 2014, he was the runner-up in The Big One for One Drop which paid him $8,288,001. The runner-up finish marked the highest live cash for Negreanu. The event was held at the WSOP but was not eligible for a WSOP bracelet.
Negreanu won $1 million as the winner of the 2016 Shark Cage tournament organized by PokerStars.net.
As of January 2026, his total live tournament winnings exceed $57,600,000. His 292 cashes at the WSOP account for over $25,800,000 of those winnings.
In October 2022, he won $3,312,000 in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl VII.
Cash games
In addition to Negreanu's regular appearances in the big game at Bobby's Room, he played in all seven seasons of the television show High Stakes Poker. He also played in two seasons of PokerStars Big Game.Online poker and sponsorship
In December 2005, Negreanu became the professional spokesperson for an online poker site called Poker Mountain. He played at this cardroom under the screen name "KidPoker". In June 2005 he announced his decision to terminate that relationship due to software issues that were problematic enough to cause a shutdown of the site. In 2006, he used Full Contact Poker to launch a competition to select a protégé, whom Daniel would attempt to mold into a world-class live tournament poker player. He agreed to pay the protégé's entry fee into four $10,000 buy-in events. Daniel's first protégé was Brian Fidler. In 2007, Daniel ran a second protégé promotion, which was won by Anthony Mak.In June 2007, Negreanu signed with PokerStars, joining Chris Moneymaker and many other professional poker players as a member of Team PokerStars. His Full Contact Poker site has since returned to being a forum and informational site. After "Black Friday", Negreanu moved back to Canada in order to continue playing online poker on PokerStars. On May 23, 2019, after nearly 12 years as a member of Team PokerStars, Negreanu announced he and PokerStars were parting ways.
Negreanu is a brand ambassador and spokesperson for GGPoker since 2019.