Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk – How the Poker Feud Started
It’s no secret that there has been a public feud between the two professional poker players Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu. Lately the Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk poker feud has reached a high point, as the two players finally agreed to play heads up – something the entire poker community is going crazy over.
25.000 hands, both live and online, will determine the ultimate winner of one of the biggest feuds in poker history. But how did it all start? Settle in and let me explain it.
Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk – The Beginning
The year is 2014 and Daniel Negreanu a.k.a. KidPoker has cemented his place as one of the biggest stars in the history of poker. With his charismatic person and dominance at the live poker tables, Daniel Negreanu can pretty much walk on water at this point.
In August of that year, Negreanu took part in the “One Drop” event and finished second. Not a bad result, but Negreanu is criticized for a key play. No stranger to online criticism, Kid Poker pretty much ignored the comments.
But one guy, cash game pro Daniel Merrilees, went on twitter and wrote “OK fair enough – I applaud your confidence. Do you think you could jump right in now and play a starts 25/50 6max game and win?”
In his usual style of likeable cockiness, Negreanu answered ‘@danielmerrilees haven’t played in ages so would say NO. However I believe it would take two weeks of work and I would be a winner.” And so it began.
A lot of people jumped on this – including Doug Polk, perhaps the biggest star of online cash games at the time, who wrote “I respect what you have done in your career, but it’s naive to think that you can log onto PokerStarts and beat $25/$50.”
This led to a long twitter fight between the two poker giants, and the seed for feud was planted.
More Rake is Better
Negreanu’s over the top confidence and character has often landed him in discussions, but Doug Polk’s massive following on social media made this feud a perfect storm. The two went back and forth at numerous occasions after the twitter incident, but the next big episode happened in early 2016.
For a long time, Negreanu has been sponsored by PokerStarts as the poster child of their brand – always promising to represent player interests. But when the massive poker site got in trouble for rolling back benefits from some of its most loyal players, Negreanu surprised everyone by siding with PokerStars. He went on twitter and argued that the new setup of higher rake would be an overall benefit to the game since it kept pros away.
And he had a point. The world of online poker had certainly become very top-heavy and something needed to be done about it. But even though PokerStars had acted within their legal rights, the entire thing let to a massive shitstorm and Negreanu was caught in the middle, siding against the poker community. And even though he never actually said it, Negreanu’s views were condensed by the poker community to the catchy slogan of ‘More Rake is Better’.
Doug Polk was born December 16, 1988 (31 years old). Polk mostly play under the alias WCGRider and specializes in Heads-up No Limit Hold’em.
Doug Polk officially retired from professional poker in September 2018 but kept running his popular YouTube channel with a poker focus.
Tap to read Doug Polk’s full poker story
Two years later, at the time of a big poker tournament in Las Vegas, the long lasting feud between Negreanu and Polk took another turn, when Doug Pol bought a huge billboard outside the event that stated ‘MoreRakeIsBetter.com’. An obvious attack on Negreanu, which caught the attention of the poker community.
Polk also showed up to numerous tournaments wearing t-shirts that said ‘More Rake is Better’ – something that clearly provoked Negreanu and didn’t help their relationship.
Head to head – Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk
No doubt 2020 is a crazy year – and this is also true for Daniek Negreanu. During a live stream, an online troll attacked Negreanu and made some very rude comments about his wife. Negreanu was quick and harsh in this answer, and his stream was swiftly suspended by Twitch. While one certainly understands Negreanu’s reaction, this was probably not a smart move by a guy representing numerous sponsors and the game as a whole.
Amidst all this controversy, Doug Polk saw his opportunity to once again poke the bear.
As he’d done many times before, he went on Twitter and challenged Negreanu to a heads-up. But this time, Kid Poker surprised everyone by accepting.
And so finally, the long lasting feud between two absolute giants of poker seem to be coming to a climax.
The Setup for the Heads-up Poker Game
Negreanu and Polk have agreed to play a total of 25.000 hands – with an option to quit after 12.500 hands. Stakes are $200 and $400. First 200 hands are played live, in-person. All remaining hands are played online on two tables at the same time.
All hands are streamed live either from the PokerGO studio in Las Vegas or on the GGPoker YouTube channel.
Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk live game
The first heads up game was played live in Las Vegas in the PokerGo studio. Here Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk were face to face against each other. Doug Polk is registered for $9,4 million in total live earnings – placing him as the 101st highest earning player at official live games.
Doug Polk is known as the ultimate heads-up wizard in online poker games – so how will he perform against Daniel Negreanu who is notoriously known for his live games? See how it all went down in the video below.
SPOILER WARNING: The result of round 1 was a pretty significant win for Daniel Negreanu. He came out on top with +$116,500 after the forst 200 hands.
Negreanu is one of the most well known and successful poker players in modern time. The Canadian was born July 26, 1974 (46 years old) and is known as KidPoker. Daniel is most known for his live games performance where he has won six World Series of Poker Bracelets and two World Poker Tour titles.
Tap to read Daniel Negreanu’s poker story.
Best Friends?
After the first live heads-up event in Las Vegas most viewers and experts were shocked – and not about the tension. The big time feud just all seemed to disappear as the players were face to face. It actually seemed like they really enjoyed each other’s company like two best friends having a good time around the poker table.
Some viewers have called this an embarrassment as they had expected an aggressive feud – just as we have seen online. But as Daniel Negreanu said about Doug Polk: “He (Polk) has been very tough online like, I’m gonna kill this guy and calling me names – but when you see him in person he is much softer. That’s very typical for most online trolls“. It really seems like it played out exactly as Negreanu had predicted.
Online heads-up – Who will bring home the gold?
The majority of the heads-up game will be played online. Here Doug Polk has the advantage over Daniel, as this is his speciality. First online game was played on 6th of November 2020. Here Negreanu started out great but ended with short stack as Doug Polk made a strong come-back and played well all through the game. See how it all went down following all rounds.
Round 2
SPOILER WARNING
Round 2 was pretty rough on Daniel Negreanu. Luckely for him he did have a big win from round 1. Watch the whole game below.
Hands played: 424
Overall hands: 624
Result: Polk +$218,292
Overall: Doug Polk +$101,792
Round 3
SPOILER WARNING
Round 3 played out well for the online heads-up expert Doug Polk. He continued to win and gain an even bigger lead.
Hands played: 382
Overall hands: 1006
Result: Doug +$166,239
Overall: Doug Polk +$268,031
Round 4
SPOILER WARNING
Negreanu had his first online win after an intense game with some big hands.
Hands played: 366
Overall hands: 1372
Result: Daniel Negreanu +$87,166
Overall: Doug Polk +$180,865
Round 5
SPOILER WARNING
Another big win for Daniel Negreanu. Daniel now takes the overall lead.
Hands played: 365
Overall hands: 1737
Result: Daniel Negreanu +$206,994
Overall: Negreanu +$25,916
Round 6
SPOILER WARNING
Doug Polk fired back and got back his overall lead again.
Hands played: 637
Overall hands: 2374
Result: Polk +$93,542
Overall: Doug Polk +$67,625
Round 7
SPOILER WARNING
Negreanu is back in the lead with biggest win of the feud yet.
Hands played: 591
Overall hands: 2965
Result: Daniel Negreanu +$222,832
Overall: Daniel Negreanu +$155,206
Round 8
SPOILER WARNING
Another session that ends up with Mr. Negreanu in the lead. A lot of big pots in this game.
Hands played: 457
Overall hands: 3422
Result: Daniel Negreanu +$24,156
Overall: Daniel Negreanu +$179,363
Round 9
SPOILER WARNING
Doug Polk gets back in the lead. But just barely by less than one 40k buy-in.
Hands played: 377
Overall hands: 3799
Result: Doug Polk +$205,521
Overall: Doug Polk +$26,158
Round 10
SPOILER WARNING
The longest Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk settion yet with over 4 hours of poker logged.
Hands played: 852
Overall hands: 4651
Result: Doug Polk +$117,624
Overall: Doug Polk +$143,996
Round 11
SPOILER WARNING
Pre-Thanksgiving session that again goes in the favor of Doug Polk.
Hands played: 386
Overall hands: 5067
Result: Doug Polk +$120,023
Overall: Doug Polk +$264,019
Round 12
SPOILER WARNING
This was a big round for Doug Polk that more than double his lead. The game had a lot of bad beats for Negreanu.
Hands played: 684
Overall hands: 5751
Result: Doug Polk +$332,178
Overall: Doug Polk +$596,197
Round 13
SPOILER WARNING
Daniel Negreanu is fighting back and ends up in plus for the day. Still a long way to go for the come back.
Hands played: 476
Overall hands: 6227
Result: Negreanu +$17,780
Overall: Doug Polk +$578,417
Round 14
SPOILER WARNING
Biggest pot yet. 180.000 dollars ending in a flush vs. Flush. Negreanu took it home.
Hands played: 600
Overall hands: 6800
Result: Daniel Negreanu +$10,000
Overall: Doug Polk +$568,417
Round 15
SPOILER WARNING
Negreanu takes another step closer to Polk by winning with a single buy in.
Hands played: 450
Overall hands: 7250
Result: Daniel Negreanu +$40,000
Overall: Doug Polk +$518,417
Final Results
Check back here to see the final results and who will be the final winner of the Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk feud.
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This modern day Hugh Hefner claims to have won more than 50M dollars playing poker – although critics doubt this story. And now he and his company Ignite risk bankruptcy.
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