Daniel Negreanu's very own containment thread. All things Danny go here

What I am saying is that those tournament skills may be more important in PLO than NLHE or other games, because in PLO tournaments, you wind up seeing the flop with an SPR of 1-3 a lot. It is a very different game with like 15xBB than PLO cash games with 300xBB. Plus in tournaments, it is more of fighting for the blinds and antes. In low and mid stakes live cash games, you often see multiway 3! pots.

PLO tournaments also attract PLO cash game pros, who think they know how to play PLO, but don't know how to play short stacked with tight play and ICM issues.

I think he would be better off and would show a much better profit playing more mixed games and less PLO and cut out the $50K+ tournaments, except the PPC mixed game.

However, he does appear to have decent results in PLO. He has won PLO PGTs with small fields, probably 75%+ pros. I do not agree at all that it is just getting lucky and winning coin flips. Tough field PLO tournaments are not like bingo.

Negreanu gets pretty cringe when he's had some booze and he's never the most thoughtful guy when it comes to race, but boy he really outdid himself in the penultimate 2025 episode, huh?

Which is to say, "he didn't actually outdo himself because he's literally done blackface in the past". I just (apparently foolishly) expect a LITTLE better from him in 2025.

As I've said: extremely problematic guy.

But to quote another problematic guy, "that's poker, folks". I love poker and I love pro wrestling, but I'm done expecting much of the human beings involved in either when it comes to being a human being.

Art from artist, so to speak.

I really dont understand why deuceblocker is so hellbent on defending Daniel's PLO game when self admitted not even a PLO player...

Daniel is mediocre at best at PLO bro... anyone who plays PLO at a decent level can see it from a few hand histories.

It's a bit of a copy and paste every few days thing at this point with zero engagement. I've heard about Dnegs PGT results at least 15 times in this thread since the series started.

Just gonna remind folks of the Ignore function, which I used for the first time ever because of someone's obsessively unproductive and willfully ignorant comments in this thread.

That's a wrap on the Vlog this year. Thought they were great as always.

Because people kept posting that he was a losing player, not a pro, had a hustle with the endorsement contract, etc.

I think the vlog was almost unwatchable for years but this year was a huge improvement. He was more positive and wasn’t constantly whining how spooky it is that he lost two flips in a row. He was also much nicer to other people and wasn’t passive-aggressively needling everyone. I think he’s probably happier than in a long time so good for him.

PLO still not his jam tho.

well he never lost 2 flips in a row this year. Personally i find the blog much more entertaining when he's losing

If you're someone who didn't like his vlog in past years, I suspect this year was better for you because it focused much more on the poker. He was making deeper runs and spending less time at home talking about his dogs or chess or fantasy hockey or vegan food, which a lot of people find boring.

I'm not a Daniel fan at all.
But when he got in trouble for the blackface, i have to plead ignorance I didn't
think that was so offensive.

I guess its a no no

But like if a pale white guy wants to dress up like Michael Jordan, I mean wtf he
can't really accomplish that without changing his complexion.

I was more offended when Daniel said increasing the rake is good for everyone.

Everyone knows more rake is good, at least if you are getting paid out of that rake.

Is it worth skipping through those vlogs to find the hands? He often doesn't include stack and bet sizes and there is not much commentary.

As countless posters have said ITT, Daniel deserves a ton of credit for doing the vlog. Yes, he benefits. Yes, the shilling has expanded over the years. Yes, he seems mostly in pursuit of the nucleus accumbens rush, etc. But the bottom line is that he could do this with much less personal disclosure, fewer warts exposed, and more flattering edits. But he has chosen instead to just give us a raw window into this world -- a window that many of us simply wouldn't have otherwise.

This summer I found myself paying a lot of attention to what was going on in the margins of the videos -- the characters (often recurring), the stray comments, the sartorial details, the inside baseball, etc. There is a tremendous volume of text and subtext -- it's all interesting (at least to me), and this is really the only place to get it. For 45 minutes each night, sitting in my den in Bethesda, it made me feel like I am part of this world.

But I'm not. I have spent a life on Wall Street and in Washington dreaming of playing poker for a living, but knowing that I would never have the chops to make it viable. And at 49.9 years old, I can already feel my cognitive software degrading. So it's not going to happen for me (and never was). But Daniel's vlog -- unlike any other form of poker content -- made it seem possible for me to go out there and actually play a low stakes tournament in the WSOP. That isn't a big deal for the vast majority of you, but it was a huge leap for me and I credit the vlog. And it was absolutely crazy -- I min-cashed the $1,500 NLHE Closer in 2023 with Phil Laak on my left for god's sake. I survived the bubble by shoving 9bb with ATss into David ODB Baker and sweating my ass off while he tanked for what seemed like an eternity (it was probably 38 seconds), and made what was almost certainly a good fold. Where else on this planet can someone like me have an experience like that? I would not have had it without Daniel's ambassadorship, and I can only imagine that my own experience scales up.

Many of the criticisms ITT are of course completely valid. The Twitter algorithm has pushed his intuitions around mightily, he sometimes seems unable to hide his disdain for the plebeians, and if he had come to my table at The Closer in 2023 and mocked the proceedings as he did at some of his lower buy-in spin-ups, I would have found it off-putting. But when I feel those criticisms mounting, I remind myself that if I did a vlog it would reveal a hell of a lot of deep flaws too. And I guess that's where I land; Daniel's vlogs are achingly human and I value them tremendously for that.

I guess the vlogs appeal to some people with all the reality TV and social media today. Also, most poker players are used to not giving out information, and would not want there life exposed. That he may not be open about some aspects of his personal life might create more interest. I really can't stand watching them.

I wasn't defending his PLO play. I know he doesn't play PLO well technically, though I am not a PLO player. However, people criticized his limp behinds on the button with QT96 and KTT2, when those are totally correct in a tournament with ante. I have experience with mixed game tournaments, but not at those stakes, and being able to play short stacked with ICM issues is different from playing a game as a cash game. I think that is the reason DN seems to have OK PLO tournament results.

Before you guys read anymore of this thread........let me tell you about Z-Biotics!

I am kind of puzzled people actually think DN is an average poker player, the way some posters here talk about him like he couldn't beat 1/2/5 PLO at the aria..cmon guys. hes in the top 1% of poker players overall and if you think he's outside the top 2-3% then that's insane thinking on your end

Daniel is super far away from being even top 5% in NLH/PLO.
That aside i love his vlogs and watch them every year =)

He is a very good tournament player. However, several have way better recent WSOP results, such as Rast, Seiver, Schulman, M.Mizrach, and Ivey. He can beat fairly high stakes mixed cash games, but not sure what level NLHE or PLO.

I disagreed with comments that he is a losing player, etc.

I have been bashing him, but I never said that.
People have been saying he's top 100 in the world at this and that.
Thats absurd.

Daniel could be top 1% overall.
But google says 100 million people play poker.
Being top 1% puts him in the top 10000.

He's actually got some natural talents and skills suited for live poker.
He's stronger live that should be obvious.

But he said increasing the rake was good and stood by that. Not to mention he
is such a politician like Hellmuth calls him. He's kinda of a bad person who
plays a different part.

Let’s be real. DNegs wouldnt be able to beat your local 2/5 game full of GTO nerds.

1% of 100 million is 1,000,000, not 10,000.

But in any case, Hendon Mob has over 700,000 individual players listed. Top 1% of this would be 7,000, and I do think Negreanu is in the top 7,000 in any form of poker.

I don’t think he’s top 100 in NLHE or PLO specifically, but I’m pretty confident he’s a top 100 poker player overall, in the sense that he’s pretty clearly +EV in the $50k PPC.

I don't know where those 2/5 games full of GTO nerds are, maybe in Europe or Vegas. Maybe you are thinking of 10/20 games.

I don't know if he is a top 100 player, considering cash game players and the whole world. He is well above the grinder level. He is significantly +ev in the PPC as mentioned, and probably in $10K and below NLHE and PLO tournaments. He would probably be a winning player at fairly high stakes mixed games.

If anyone plays in a 2/5 live game like this they're just an idiot.

I doubt Negreanu cares if he could beat anything like this. He's kinda a clown but he markets himself super well and is clearly rich.

I've said it before in this thread, and I don't know why I can't resist doing it again, but your statement here is completely wrong. He said that in one certain context, increasing the rake could have a positive impact on a specific game situation, and what he said was 100% logical and correct. He did not make a blanket "increasing the rake is good" statement, and if this is why you dislike him, you should re-examine.