Good evening Poker Addicts !

I’ve decided to split the final three in three different posts to keep it a little bit more exciting and to be honest, they all deserve a whole  page of their own. But sadly enough ended the Godfather of this poker blog, and one of my personal favourites, up the third place. Good enough for the bronze medal and eternal fame in the minds of all the smallball-poker.com lovers. Let’s face it, Mister Negreanu is probably the best and greatest example for all you poker players out there, in terms of playing style and manners. Here’s why…

(3) =>   DANIEL NEGREANU

> born 26/07/1974 in Toronto (CAN).

> resides now in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA)

> seperated from Lori Lin Weber in 2007.

> Nickname : ‘ Kid Poker ‘

> became 11th in the 2001 WSOP Main Event and 2nd in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event

> won 4 Bracelets (’98 PL Hold’em/ ‘03 S.H.O.E./ ‘04 Limit Hold’em/ ‘08 Limit Hold’em)

> won 2 WPT-titles (’04 Borgata Open/ ‘04 Five Diamond)

> plays online at PokerStars as a member of Team PokerStars

> has Live Tournament Winnings of almost $ 12,750,000 (until now)

> ranked second on the all time live tournament list after Phil Ivey

Daniel has Romanian descent because his parents left the communist regime there in 1967 to start a new life in Canada. He learned the game of poker at the age of 15 when he was starting his professional snooker career. He soon dropped out of high school to become a full time rounder playing at local casinos and illegal games. After dating fellow poker pro Evelyn Ng , Daniel left for Vegas the first time at the age of 22.

Kid Poker is a very sporting guy who likes to play golf with his peers and he’s a big NHL fan, mostly from the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s a vegan since 2006, after being a vegetarian first since 2000. He’s world wide known as one of the most kind and popular players in the circuit, which he also proves at different charity events. He’s also the founder of the annual ” Big Swing ” charity golf event. Mr. Negreanu made famous cameo appearances in ‘ X-Men Origins: Wolverine ‘ and in  ‘Lucky You ‘.

Daniel is probably overall one of the best players on the planet with, besides his wins, several WSOP and WPT final tables and 1 Poker After Dark title. He was named the Card Player Player of the Year and World Series of Poker Player of the Year in 2004, probably his best year ever. He was also the 2004-2005 World Poker Tour Player of the Year and he was awarded as the Favourite Player by Card Player in 2006. Until now he won the most money on the WPT circuit.

Kid Poker is also a regular in the highest cash games at the Bellagio. He’s a self-admitted action junkie playing his small ball poker strategy. He’s very outspoken about his poker results at his Full Contact Poker blog. For me, his best skill is reading opponents, he’s a real reading phenomenon. He played in all six seasons of GSN’s High Stakes Poker and he probably lost in all of them. Not because he played bad, but mostly because he’s one of the most unlucky players that I’ve seen. Remember Gus Hansen’s sick one outer on the turn when they both flopped a set. Daniel started his own online poker cardroom on his Full Contact Poker site where he launched 2 competitions in 2006 and 2007 to select a protege, whom Daniel would train into a world-class live tournament player. Mr. Negreanu released his book ‘ Power Hold’em Strategy ‘  in 2008, with contributions from several other poker players.

So, this was my ode to one of my absolute heroes and representative of smallball poker, mister Daniel Negreanu. May he brings us more pleasure, joy and victories  in the future, but I’m pretty sure about that. Is it Phil Hellmuth or Phil Ivey? Which Phil would be the ultimate number one of my Most Famous Poker Players top-100 list ?  See you next time !

Cheers,

J.M.