Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian poker star. He was born in Toronto in 1974, but is now based, perhaps unsurprisingly, in La Vegas. He was born just a year after his parents emigrated from Romania, and showed plenty of ambition as a youngster. He was always convinced that he would make plenty of money and end up living in California. Despite initial dreams of becoming a professional snooker player, he learned to play poker at the age of 15, and his future was sealed.
After developing his skills on the local poker scene in Toronto, Negreanu left for Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 22. Just prior to his move to the USA, he met and went on to marry Evelyn Ng, who would also become a famous professional poker player. His first move to Las Vegas did not work out well, though. He had soon exhausted his bankroll, and was forced to move back home to Canada.
His career would take off in the 21st century, with Negreanu enjoying tremendous success. He has won six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, and has also won two World Poker Tour (WPT) championships. He has reached the finals of many other World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker championships, and was named as Player of the Year by Card Player in 2004, and also as WSOP Player of the Year. He would win the WPT Player of the Year award in 2004/05.
In 2013, he became the only player to ever win the WSOP Player of the Year award for a second time, and also managed to pick up another two WSOP bracelets. In later 2014, Negreanu was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. In 2016, the Canadian took home a cool $1 million, when he won the Shark Cage Tournament, which was organised by PokerStars.net.
By January 2020, Negreanu’s career winnings from live tournaments stood at more than $42 million. Of that amount, his 106 cashes at the WSOP accounts for over $16 million of that figure. As well as playing poker successfully, Negreanu has also written a book on poker strategy called ‘Power Hold’em Strategy, as well as hundreds of articles on poker for Card Player magazine. He even made a cameo appearance as (what else?) a card player in the movie ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’.