Daniel Negreanu’s $1 Million Poker Bet

August 19th, 2014 | by Jason Reynolds

Negreanu is willing to back his convictions with a $1 million wager.

Kid Poker, Daniel Negreanu, recently set out to prove he’s a man by putting up $1 million to prove he can beat the toughest online cash games in the world.

By now we all know that Daniel Negreanu is one of game’s finest tournament players.

However, when it comes to cash games, either live or online, he’s regarded as something of a loose cannon.

While he can sometimes perform well and make money, he’s also been known to lose his focus and call off his stack in bad spots.

However, regardless of how spectators perceive his abilities, Negreanu is extremely confident that he can beat the world’s best players in any poker format.

A Chorus of Negativity

Negreanu tweeted that he’d be willing to stake $1 million against anyone that believes he couldn’t emerge as a winner over the course of 50,000+ hands

Such confidence can often cause a negative reaction in people. In fact, such was the vitriol from some railbirds last night that Negreanu decided to engage then in a Twitter debate.

After being questioned about his prowess as an online cash game player, Negreanu asserted that he has “zero doubt [he’d] be a winning player” if he competed against the game’s toughest virtual grinders.

Going into the debate further, the Canadian said that he would be a winner in any $25/$50+ cash game if he was allowed to work on his game for two weeks.

A Million Dollar Promise

As expected, a flock of naysayers soon began to tweet the Canadian pro. However, in typically confident fashion, Negreanu brushed off the jibes and offered to put his money where his mouth is.

In fact, Negreanu tweeted that he’d be willing to stake $1 million against anyone that believes he couldn’t emerge as a winner over the course of 50,000+ hands.

Community Reaction to Negreanu’s Bravado

Following Negreanu’s admission that he’d bet $1 million on himself beating the top online cash games, the forums began to buzz with both positive and negative reactions:

‘shoejoe’ – “It’s absurd how much hate Daniel gets considering how kind and entertaining he is and everything he does for poker.”

‘Jason Mo’ – “@RealKidPoker if you are serious I’ll book at least a couple $100k action against for 5/10 zoom or 25/50+ ring over a decent sample, lmk.”

‘Isaac Haxton’ – “I’m inclined to take Daniel’s side here.”

‘CyberShark93’ – “Even if he finds a fish, that table will instantly have a waitlist 50 deep.”

The History of Daniel Negreanu

Since taking up the game before Chris Moneymaker was nothing more than a twinkle in the poker world’s eye, Daniel Negreanu has gone on to rack up $29,796,380 in live tournament earnings. However, while MTT results have helped him become one of the richest poker players in the world, Negreanu has often struggled in cash games.

Numerous appearances on shows such as High Stakes Poker have shown a tendency to play too loose at certain times and too cautious in other spots. Although he’s undoubtedly a match for the majority of the community when it comes to ring games, there are many who feel he’s not amongst the world’s elite.