If you polled casual poker fans and asked them who their favorite poker player was, my guess is that Daniel Negreanu would receive the highest number of votes. Ask a more serious fan and Negreanu’s name might not come up. Today, at least from what I can tell, Negreanu is looked at as more of a poker “celebrity” than an actual star player. His rise to prominence started about a decade ago; he was making final tables and winning tournaments just as televised poker was taking off. His affable personality combined with the broadcast of his triumphs made him the darling of poker fans around the globe, and rightfully so. As the years went on, he remained one of poker’s most visible players, even when he wasn’t tearing up the competition. Thus, even during slow times, his celebrity remained intact.
Though Negreanu embraced the online game a long time ago, he has never been a top online player, resulting in hard core internet poker players to not embrace him as much as the television audience has. Thus, he feels to many like more of a celebrity than a true star, even if he still is a very good poker player.
The funny thing is, though he might not put on a show at the virtual tables like Isildur1, as far as live tournaments go, Negreanu has been doing great (I can’t really speak to his cash game results). Since his breakthrough 2004 when he amassed almost $4.5 million in winnings, he has only had three years during which he did not earn more than a million dollars. He ranks third on the all-time live tournament money list, ahead of such luminaries as Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth. And if you get rid of super high roller events with buy-ins of more than $50,000, he is number one, more than $2 million ahead of Hellmuth (thank you to TheHendonMob.com for the figures).
And then, of course, he just clinched the 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year (POY) title. It’s not something a lot of people saw coming; it was one of the stealthiest runs to POY that we’ve seen. It seems odd that one of the best poker players of the last decade could become the first person to win the WSOP POY twice without much fanfare, but the reason probably lies in his path to the title. Let’s take a look:
Negreanu’s first World Series of Poker cash in 2013 was a 4th place finish in the WSOP Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) $2,080 Mixed Event in April. He followed that up a few days later with what would prove to be his biggest one of the year, a victory in the WSOP APAC Main Event, a win that earned him 360 of his 890.22 POY points.
This summer, Negreanu cashed six times in the traditional WSOP in Las Vegas, mostly minor scores. The one event that really boosted his POY standing was the $2,500 Triple Draw Lowball Event, where he finished as the runner-up, nabbing 123 points.
He still had some ground to make up heading into WSOP Europe this month and while 25th place in the Main Event was a great run, it only garnered him 17 points. What put him over the top was the last WSOP event he would be able to play in for the year, the $34,480 High Roller Event. With only the November Nine left to go, this was it for everybody but the nine Main Event finalists. Negreanu made the most of the opportunity, winning the event for about million dollars and 264 POY points. That allowed him to soar past Matthew Ashton, whom he was only behind by about 40 points.
So, if you look at Negreanu’s path to the Player of the Year crown, you can see that his two bracelets and biggest point totals came in WSOP events outside the United States. WSOP APAC is new, not really at the forefront of most people’s minds, and though WSOP Europe increases in popularity, it still does not garner the attention of the traditional WSOP. Additionally, because his victories were separated by months, the narrative just wasn’t there like some past Players of the Year. Compare that to Jeff Madsen, for instance, who had four top three finishes (including two bracelets) spanning four different poker variants in 2006. Or Jeff Lisandro, who won three stud events in 2009.
Regardless of how sexy his 2013 WSOP story is, Negreanu has had a great year and this honor is well deserved.
