Daniel Negreanu has been successful in just about every poker arena he has entered.
He has more in lifetime live tournament earnings than any poker player in history, and has won both World Series of Poker bracelets and World Poker Tour championships.
He has proven himself to be one of poker’s best ambassadors to the general public, and has captivated audiences in his recent attempts at streaming online poker sessions on Twitch. So why not try to make his mark on televised poker as well?
It appears as though that is the next challenge for Negreanu. Poker Central, a planned 24/7 poker network that is expected to launch before the end of the year, has announced that Negreanu will be a partner for the network, likely meaning that he will be seen in content aired by the network.
However, details of the arrangement have not been made available at this time.
“We are excited to add Daniel to the Poker Central team,” said Poker Central CEO Clint Stinchcomb. “Daniel is a great ambassador of the game and will help take televised poker to new heights.”
Poker Central is a project that has been in the works for over a year at this point, though it has gained a significant amount of attention in recent weeks. The network promises to be the first dedicated poker television network. No official launch date has been announced at this point, nor is it clear how it will be distributed; however, the launch is expected to happen in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Stinchcomb has said that while launching a network with only poker content will be a challenge, he thinks it isn’t all that different than other ideas that have been successfully tried in the past.
“I can remember being asked the same question about a network devoted 24/7 to crime and now look at the success of Investigation Discovery,” Stinchcomb said to PokerNews in mid-April. “Or a 24/7 network devoted to golf, and look at the success of the Golf Channel. We have a great team fully cognizant of and experienced in the challenges of programming 8,760 hours per year, that is not just 24/7 but 24/365.”
Negreanu confirmed his involvement with Poker Central, though he was also short on details about what that relationship would mean for him or the network.
“I am thrilled to join the Poker Central team,” Negreanu said in a press release. “I can’t wait to help make 24/7 poker a reality.”
Negreanu also confirmed that he would be playing in the Super High Roller Bowl, the $500,000 buy-in tournament that is taking place at the ARIA Resort & Casino starting on July 2.
The tournament is scheduled to take place right after the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop and just before the World Series of Poker Main Event begins, so it should be a popular event: stars like Phil Hellmuth and Antonio Esfandiari are among those who have already committed to the tournament.
The Super High Roller Bowl will also be one of the first original programming projects for Poker Central. The network will be working with POKER PROductions to produce a television program based around the tournament, presumably to air on the network once it launches.