Daniel Negreanu isn’t about to let the game of poker pass him by. The Team PokerStars Pro member from Canada wrote in his blog this week that he plans to put in a lot of volume on the world’s leading online poker site in order to keep up with the “younger players.” He may even make a run at SuperNova.
“The best No Limit Hold’em players in the world today are mostly young,” Negreanu wrote in his blog at Full Contact Poker. “It’s just a fact and if you look at tournament results over the past few years, it’s trending younger and younger. Why? The younger players are using more advanced tools to break down the game, discussing hands with friends and on forums, and most importantly are putting in more volume than the older generation.”
His way of countering the youth movement is setting up challenges for himself. Negreanu has taken on a handful of online challenges since signing with PokerStars in 2007; in January 2009, he began a bankroll building test in which he started at the micro-stakes with $10 with the goal of turning it into $100,000. That challenge seemed to hit a lull shortly after it was conceived. However, in his current challenge, Negreanu will shift his focus toward playing the highest stakes available against the best players on the site.
“One of my goals this year is to accumulate over 55,000 VPPs on PokerStars,” said Negreanu, who plays as “KidPoker” on the site. “I got 55,000 last year, my highest total ever, and I plan on getting to 60,000 this year, and possibly even reaching SuperNova status. One of the best ways to do it, I found, was to play the $5,600 buy-in heads-up No Limit Hold’em Turbo sit and gos.”
So far in 2011, Negreanu has played 30 of the $5,600 heads-up sit and gos on PokerStars, winning 21 for an impressive rate of 70%. Most of the matches have come against online player “SkaiWalkurrr,” but he has also played against “pistons87” and “Berndsen12.” Negreanu and “Skaiwalkurrr” played seven matches late Saturday night, with “KidPoker” winning four. He has accumulated more than 16,500 VPPs in 2011 at the time of writing, easily on pace to reach the SuperNova goal of 100,000 VPPs.
Negreanu also mentioned that he’s also been practicing four-tabling $5-$10 heads-up cash games in preparation for a possible SuperStar Showdown with Viktor “Isildur1” Blom. His goal is to play 2,500 hands before considering taking on the cagey Swede at the $50-$100 tables. “I’m nowhere near ready,” Negreanu admitted. “Hey, like I said, just being honest! As much as I’d like to play him now, I don’t think I’d give him much of a match at this point. I’ll need to get a couple months of practice in where I get comfortable with the speed of things.”
Blom has faced off against two players in the SuperStar Showdown since becoming part of the PokerStars team in December. He first played against Isaac “philivey2694” Haxton and lost $42,000 in the 2,500-hand match. Then, to the delight of railbirds everywhere, Blom battled the brash PartyPoker pro Tony G in the SuperStar Showdown on January 2nd. Blom finished on top the second time around, beating Tony G for $44,820. There’s been no official announcement about a third challenger, but Tony G has offered a rematch to Blom to play another match on his sponsor’s site, PartyPoker.
Could Negreanu be next in line for the SuperStar Showdown? Stay tuned to Poker News Daily to find out.