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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’.

Who is Doug Polk?

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.

Who is Daniel Negreanu?

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.

via GIPHY

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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Want more poker player stories?

The world of poker has many legends with interesting stories. We’ve gathered some of the best, and are constantly adding more. You should check them out.

Like the story of poker’s biggest playboy, the nutorious Dan Bilzerian.
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.

Or maybe the story of ‘the Great Dane’, Gus Hansen, who built a fortune playing poker but ended up losing more than 20M dollars. Read the crazy story here.

Daniel Negreanu – Poker Player Story

Daniel Negreanu AKA Kid Poker, is one of the most well known and liked poker players in the world.
He is famous for his incredible ability to read players and his may wins and major titles.
His place in the official Poker Hall of Fame is a true testament to his poker-skills and achievements.

But how did a colorful, loudmouthed Canadian become perhaps the greatest poker player of all time?
This is the story of Daniel Negreanu.

We’ve also made this blog post into a video, if you prefer watching instead of reading.

Who is Daniel Negreanu?

Daniel Negreanu is a talkative professional Canadian Texas Hold‘em poker player.

His aggressive style of playing, and flair for reading opponents, has earned him 2 World Poker Tour titles and 6 World Series of Poker bracelets (among numerous other wins). Negreanu has also been named The World Series of Poker – Player of the year, twice.

Daniel is currently placed third in all time poker earnings. His total live earnings are currently at a whopping $ 42.053,305.

Early life of Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu’s parents immigrated to Toronto, Canada from Romania, seven years prior to Daniels birth on july 26, 1974. They wished for a better future for their children.

By the age of four, Negreanu was hooked on The American Dream. He wanted to be rich. He is described as ‘bad-mannered’ in school and as the years went on and Daniel went to college, he was several credits short of graduating. He was failing.
But at the age of 15, he learned to play poker.

Daniel Negreanu is synonymous with ‘poker’. His funny wit, charismatic persona and unrivaled skill of reading players, has influenced the poker-scene like few other. Negreanu has appeared on numerous live transmitted poker-events and speaks freely about all things within the range of poker. He has even appeared in movies and made series and books about how to play and win poker.

By age 16, he was already ‘a regular’ at the local pool tables, and at one point he actually thought about becoming a professional snooker player. In the end though, his love of poker won, and Negreanu eventually dropped out of high school and began pursuing a career in poker.
He started off as a rounder – An expert player who travels to seek out high-stakes games – appearing at Casino Country and Fundtime. He’s even been rumored to sniff out illegal games.

Daniel began working on his reputation and his bankroll throughout his early twenties and headed to Las Vegas when he was 21. Things didn’t go as planned and he ended up losing more than he could afford.

He moved back to Toronto, and began rebuilding his bankroll.

In 1998, 24 year old Daniel won the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em at the World Series of Poker. The win added an astounding prize of $169,460 to his growing bankroll and his first bracelet – which is kind of a big deal within the poker community. He became the youngest to ever win a bracelet. Hence, Kid Poker.

From this point on, there was np turning back for young Negreanue.

Daniel Negreanu biggest win

Negreanu’s biggest win was in 2014, when he placed second in the Big One For One Drop $1 million buy-in event. Kid Poker battled 41 other poker players for the prize pool of $37,333,338.

Daniel Negreanu came in second only beated by Dan Colman. But Negreanu’s pity prize of $8,288,001 still remains his biggest earning. Negreanu later said that all he could think about after that was how much money he could have won, had he beat Colman.

Bracelets and titles

Daniel Negreanu began his impressive collection of bracelets in 1998, when he won the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em($169,460). In 2003 he went on to win the $2,000 S.H.O.E ($100,440) and followed that up in 2004 by winning the $2,000 Limit Hold’em ($169,100) again.
Four years later, in 2008, he took another bracelet from a $2,000 Limit Hold’em($204,874). In 2013 he won both a $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event ($1,038,825) and a €25,600 High Roller No Limit Hold’em (€725,000).

Negreanu won both his World Poker Tour Titles in 2004. One for his win in the $10,000 Borgata Poker Open ($1,117,400) and the second in $15,000 Five Diamond World Poker Classic ($1,795,218).

He has several more merits to his name, amongst these, Foxwoods’ World Poker finals in 1997 and British Columbia Poker Championships’ main event, which made him $299,951 richer.

Private life

On the home front, Daniel Negreanu has been married two times. In 2005 he got married to Lori Lin Weber. Lori is a known and accomplished professional poker player. They later separated in 2007 and got divorced later on.

Daniel remarried in 2019 to long-time girlfriend Amanda Leatherman. He had acually bought the rings 10 years prior to that, when they decided to get engaged. But he thought she was not ready to settle down at that point of time. They separated, but eventually got together again, when she returned to Las Vegas.

Newer controversy

Kid Poker was banned from Twitch in July of this year, when he got caught in a bad mannered outburst at a viewer in the chat. The reason? The viewer had made rude remarks about Negreanu’s wife, Amanda Leatherman.

His wife defended the actions of her husband, stating that she was happy that her husband stood up for her. A month later Daniel / @realkidpoker was back on Twitch.

In 2019 Daniel Negreanu came into new controversy for writing a blog about the worst kind of poker players. He later had to apologize, as many thought he had lost touch with the poker-scene, as he does not grind as much anymore.

Daniel Negreanu vs. Doug Polk

For years, Daniel Negreanu has had an ongoing feud with Californian poker player Doug Polk.
Like Negreanu, Doug Polk is a colorful and loudmouthed character of the poker scene – and we’ve actually also written a complete post about his story which you can find here.

The relationship between the two poker legends have been bad blooded for years, and reached it’s unavoidable peak in 2020 when Negreau surprised everyone by actually accepting a challenge from Doug Polk.

Negreanu and Polk agreed to play a total of 25000 hands – with the option to stop after just 12500 hands.
The game is Texas Hold’em HUNL and stakes are $200 and $400. The first 200 hands were played live, face to face. Later hands are played online on two simultanious tables.

This poker feud is really something, with a ton of small jabs going back and forth between the two.
If you’d like to dig deeper we’ve gathered everything in this one post. Truely a clash of poker titants.

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Daniel Negreanu – Poker Player Story

What do you think – is Negreanu the best poker player of his era? Let us know in the comments below 👇

If you liked this post, maybe check out one of our other poker player stories – like the rise and fall of the ‘Great Dane’, Gus Hansen, who went from being one of the best poker players of all time to loosing more that $20,000,000, quitting poker and getting a job as an accoountant.

Or how about the story of Dan Bilzerian, the poker playboy who claims to have won more than $50M playing high stakes poker against international billionaires. But is he really a legit poker player?