Laughing in Daniel Negreanu’s Face

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 8, 2009 in failure, poker | 1 comment

I found a post on CardsChat in regards to a post on FullContact Poker, the site that famous poker pro Daniel Negreanu announced that he is going to uber-grind $10 and turn it into $100k. You can track his thread progress here. Keep in mind this is the same guy that posted earlier that 2009 was going to be a step back because the players had gotten tougher and the games not worth his time, and that he wanted to spend more time enjoying his own life.

Now, I'm all for enjoying your own life especially when you've literally won the millions that this top table-poker (meaning live casino action) professional has done in his career. Perhaps his mindset is that he needed a challenge that he can get excited for and this was the trick. Now you might wonder why the title is what it is, and why I am Ha-Ha'ing right in this top (and well respected) pro's face (not literally mind you) about this "challenge" he is putting himself through. Well, as you know I'm all about the bullet points ...

• DN (Daniel Negreanu) says that he is going to use the "500bb" (meaning 5 buyins) rule when playing 2nl, 5nl, and 10nl ... and maybe even 25nl and 50nl! That is so absolutely absurd and immediately makes me think he'll go busto around 10nl or 25nl due to simple variance and inevitable "pro tilt" thinking he is so much better than he is. Who's to say some smart-ass higher stakes pro won't jump down in his game just to piss him off. MAN that would be classic.

• He stated he is apparently going to play no limit and I'll assume he means full ring because he doesn't state if he will play 6max or fullring. I actually think there's a chance he doesn't feel there's a difference. I really think he has no experience at these microstakes and he is overwhelmingly going to under-estimate the competition around 50nl to 200nl where there are legitimately superstars of online poker grinding out an amazing living (obviously more at 100 and 200nl and probably never at 50nl).
• When he doubles up on a table he's going to leave. It actually coincides well with his "5 buyin bankroll" policy but he's losing out on tables with juicy action. I mean, does this grind-a-thon have an end date or will we be checking in on August 31st, 2041?
• He's recording some of the sessions for PokerVT.com, his online poker school. I imagine about 3 of these videos will see the light of day. He's thinking for a 1knl game and playing 2nl ... that's just going to be a train wreck.

Anyways, I am positive DN will fail if he keeps the bankroll requirements the way they are. I also tend to think players will inevitably play wild against him to "take him out" and thus he will experience an ever higher degree of variance that normal players would enjoy. WHICH - again - makes my theory that his BR requirements will be his undoing carry more weight. Irregardless I'll take some of the 100nl and 200nl online pros in a 6max cash game any day of the week over DN. Now, if we're playing a $2.5k WPT live casino tournament, of course I got DN's back for sure. And don't think I dislike DN at all, I met him once and he's the same approachable and nice guy in person as he is on TV. I just think he's going to crash and burn on this one.