WSOP Profile Daniel Negreanu

01-18-07, LearnTexasHoldem:

Canadian Daniel Negreanu is one of the most successful players in tournament poker. He has two World Poker Tour titles and one of the fattest tournament bankrolls around.

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"Kid Poker"

The youthful but talented "Kid Poker" has been tearing up the tournament circuit for a decade, and has become a household name in poker circles, appearing on nearly every televised poker tournament, and even his own video game. What he does not have is a No-Limit Hold'em World Series of Poker bracelet. Like most professional poker players in the modern era, he would do anything to get one.

Crazy Re-buy Strategy

The most amusing example of this quest occurred in the 2006 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em rebuy event at the WSOP. In a re-buy tournament, a player who gets busted can simply buy more chips. This set amount of chips gets them back into the game until they are busted and can no longer re-buy for financial reasons, or the re-buy period of the tournament ends.

Daniel Negreanu, for whom money is of very little object when it comes to the quest for World Series of Poker hardware, came into the re´-buy event with a plan. He sat down, and pushed all-in. Getting called and losing, he re-bought. Then he started pushing all in again. And again. And again. Using this strategy he quickly found himself on his sixth re-buy, as he would ultimately get called after picking up a few rounds of blinds.

All-in with Pocket Fours

Finally, Daniel moved in with pocket fours and was called by AA and AK. As had to happen sooner or later, a four came to triple him up. You might have thought this was a good opportunity for Daniel to settle down and play some real poker.

But Daniel felt it would take more than that to win. By the end of the re-buy period, Daniel had spent around the amount it would take to buy in to the main event on a $1,000 entry fee tournament. The good news for those that would prefer skill to win out over deep pockets? Negreanu failed to survive the first day of the tournament.

Negreanu was clearly having some fun with this strategy, one he could well afford. He is famous for having a "crazy day," one day a week where he gambles it up and makes wild plays he would not normally make, both to get it out of his system and to deceive opponents about his ability, and it is likely this "super re-buy" strategy was an offshoot of that. Still, if you find yourself at a re-buy tournament at the World Series of Poker with Daniel Negreanu, be prepared to start moving some chips.