The six-time World Series of Poker champion teaches you strategies to advance your cash, tournament, and online play. To submit requests for assistance, or provide feedback regarding accessibility, please contact support@masterclass.com. As a celebration of Daniel Negreanu's time with PokerStars, we showcase 10 of the greatest poker hands he has played on PokerStars shows.Subscribe here to ou.

Daniel Negreanu was born to Annie and Constantin on July 26th, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Daniel’s parents moved to Canada after leaving Romania in hopes of giving their children better lives.

At the age of sixteen, Daniel discovered an affinity for gambling, pool hustling, and poker. These games, combined with his love for numbers and probability, quenched Daniel’s competitive thirst. After leaving high school one art credit short, Daniel was playing poker full time and with adults twice his age in various charity casinos and other gambling halls. Not only was Daniel playing in these games, but he was also winning on a consistent basis. As time pressed on Daniel’s bankroll grew.

Being one that always liked a competitive challenge, Daniel set his sights on the poker capital of the world – Las Vegas. When he turned 21, Daniel packed up his things, his bankroll, and came rolling down to The City of Lights. There he discovered that the glitzy casinos of Vegas were much different from the charity casinos in Toronto. Daniel lost his bankroll in Vegas and returned home to Toronto to rebuild what he had lost. Like a great champion, Daniel kept fighting, and he continued the cycle of winning in Toronto and then losing in Las Vegas.

Then, one day it all came together. Daniel figured out how to beat the tables in Las Vegas. He worked hard to plug the leaks in his game, spending hundreds of hours playing, studying, and working diligently to become one of the best. All of the hard work paid off. In 1997 Daniel was named best all around player at Foxwoods’ World Poker Final. In 1998, Daniel entered his very first World Series of Poker event. He won that $2,000 Pot Limit Hold ‘Em event, and at the age of 23, Daniel became the youngest player ever, at the time, to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. The win earned Daniel the nickname “Kid Poker.”

Daniel’s success continued, adding another World Series of Poker bracelet in 2003. This time Daniel demonstrated his all-around ability by winning the S.H.O.E bracelet. S.H.O.E. is a game that rotates in order: Seven Card Stud, Hold’ Em, Omaha Eights or Better and Stud Eights or Better.

Daniel had arguably the best year of his poker career in 2004. In that year, Daniel made 11 final tables, which includes two WPT victories (Borgata and Bellagio) and his third World Series of Poker bracelet in Limit Hold ‘Em. His total winnings that year amounted to a staggering $4,465,907. Daniel’s excellent play throughout the year earned him both the World Series of Poker Player of the Year and Card Player Magazine Player of the Year titles. He was also named WPT Season 3 (2004-2005) Player of the Year.

Then in 2005, Daniel decided to broaden his horizons and moved into different business ventures. Daniel contributed a chapter in Doyle Brunson’s Super System 2 and began working on two books, one was released in 2007 called Hold’em Wisdom for all players & the other is Power Hold’em Strategy which was released in 2008.

The biggest announcement in 2007 was Daniel becoming a member of Team PokerStars. PokerStars is the largest online poker site in the world and is the perfect fit for Negreanu. “I’m very excited about joining Team PokerStars. The organisation seems like the perfect fit for me and I’m glad they feel the same way.” said Daniel. To this day Daniel is still one of the primary faces of Poker Stars and represents them around the World.

Daniel has continued to have success on the Poker Tournament Trail over the years with over $21 Million in life time earnings to go along with 6 WSOP Bracelets and many other championships on the WPT and other tournament circuits around the World.

2013 was another very special year for Daniel where he arguably had the best year of tournament poker anybody has had since his great 2004. Daniel started the year with a victory in the WSOP Asia-Pacific Main Event in Australia and finished it with a 2^nd WSOP Bracelet on the year in the WSOP Europe High Roller Event. Sandwiched between those victories Daniel final tabled the Championship Events of both the EPT and WPT and finished 2^nd in the $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event at the WSOP in Las Vegas.

Daniel was named the 2013 WSOP Player of the Year, the 2013 Bluff Player of the Year and the 2013 Card Player Magazine Player of the Year and was ranked #1 on the GPI rankings to finish the year.

Daniel is arguably one of the best and most influential poker players in the world. His fun-loving personality and easy-going attitude make him a favorite among poker fans. His outspoken nature and love of the game have translated into Daniel having some strong opinions on what is best for poker and he has been consistently named by Bluff as one of the most powerful people in the world of poker in their annual rankings.

Daniel is a performer at heart and has acted in such movies as “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Detention” along with appearing on numerous TV Shows both poker and non-poker related.

Daniel currently lives in Las Vegas where he loves to spend time with friends and his best buddy Mushu when he isn’t playing poker or trying to work on his golf game.

For a summary of Daniel’s career highlights, visit his Trophy Room.

Playing heads-up cash games online for hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t something most poker players will ever experience. However, poker fans recently got a taste of this action with Daniel Negreanu squaring off against Doug Polk at WSOP.com.

Beyond the play on the felt and results, there was plenty of action behind the scenes as well. The two men spent hours in preparation and studying each day’s hands behind the scenes. That involved reviewing hand histories, solver analysis, coaching, and more.

For the uninitiated, the behind-the-scenes work might be surprising. USPoker took a look at what kind of efforts went into the match and how each got ready to hit the tables.

Team Polk

Preparing for an online poker duel

In NASCAR, a driver earns major accolades for crossing the finish line in the top spot. But a big team in the background helps make that possible. The pit crew, team engineers, crew chief, and spotter all make efforts to get that driver to the checkered flag.

These two online poker warriors took a similar approach to the High Stakes Feud. Simply rolling out of bed and firing up the computer to play wouldn’t have been a good plan.

There’s no doubt Polk is an amazingly talented player. The founder of Upswing Poker didn’t go it alone in the challenge however.

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After the final match in the series, Polk discussed his team on the final Upswing stream of the series. He offered a look at what into his efforts.

“I’m very happy that I spent so much time preparing and I felt that it ended up helping me tremendously and I got to execute at such a long period of time,” Polk said.

That execution came with lots of fine tuning and adjustment. And the Polk war room included a team helping make that happen. A couple of players served as coaches to help build a framework for play and also run simulations on a poker solver.

A solver is a software program identifying the optimal play in a given situation. Players, or in this case Polk’s team, enter each situation and the software indicates the best choice. The routine involved hours of work each day.

♠♠♠ Click here for in-depth coverage on poker solvers.♠♠♠

Another few players helped create hand ranges based on all of Negreanu’s bet sizes. A team of Upswing poker members also recorded statistics for all the hands throughout the series. That meant every continuation bet, raise, and any other move.

“They created a spreadsheet for me and were just straight-out grinding out stats,” Polk said.

Battling in the background

The match may have lasted three months, but Polk spent several months preparing beforehand. He hadn’t played in over a year before that and said he got “wrecked” initially playing at smaller stakes.

After finding his team of coaches, however, Polk’s game began to improve. His team constantly ran simulations – cross-testing bet sizes and hand ranges.

In reviewing the series, Polk believes Negreanu played well and could top most players who aren’t heads-up high-stakes specialists.

“I really think Daniel played exceptionally well for what I would have expected,” he said in a recent video analyzing Negreanu’s play throughout the series. “It’s a completely different beast heads-up. You have to play the vast majority of your hands.”

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That involves continually making tough calls, sharp bluffs, and fighting for every pot, Polk noted. The effort may not have been NASA landing a rover on Mars, but there was a deep, high-tech team strategy underway.

Polk described his team as “some of the brightest minds in poker.” Sometimes that included reminding him to fold more and stick to the game plan. His tech team looked for a counter to every Negreanu change or adjustment.

That paid off to the tune of a $1.2 million win playing two tables at $200/$400No Limit Hold’em.

“That full team of people helped me in different ways,” said Polk, who’s now heading to play in PokerGO’s High Stakes Poker. “I’m obviously thankful that I got to work with such great guys to get me to the level at where I am today. I just couldn’t have done it without them.”

Team Negreanu

Assembling a team for the challenge

Despite losing in the matchup, even Polk conceded that his opponent made considerable progress. He labeled Negreanu as a really good heads-up player who could do well against most challengers.

The problem is that Polk isn’t like most challengers. Extremely talented and possessing an innate gift for aggression at the right moments, he gives an opponent fits in extremely tough spots.

Negreanu knew he’d be the underdog going into the match and put together a team to help. After weeks of studying and preparing, Kid Poker hit the tables on Nov. 4.

The Team Negreanu crew consisted of two people coaching him as the series went along. That came to as many as six hours a day. A third person was also involved learning along with Negreanu throughout the process to help fine tune the strategy.

This “poker pit crew” used a GTO (game theory optimization) practice driller. GTO is the concept of using analytical tools to make optimal choices regarding certain decisions.

That involved making use of the PioSolver and running simulations on hands Negreanu played. The team could use that analysis to create and work on new concepts.

A growing complexity to high stakes online poker

What does all this high-tech analysis say about where online poker is now? It means playing at some of the highest stakes continues to require massive amounts of training and analysis.

“The game is more complex at the highest levels and the skill set to become a great poker player has changed,” Negreanu told USPoker. “It’s less about talent and more about work ethic and study when it comes to online poker. I think live poker is mostly safe from being totally overtaken.”

This one is not good for my all in EV stats 😂😂😂@CoreySteel_pic.twitter.com/HIJpg9kkmz

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) February 4, 2021

Looking back, Negreanu was forthcoming about the matchup and everything that went into it. He even recently discussed heading back to the tables heads-up against Phil Hellmuth.

“I learned a lot rapidly throughout the process,” he said, “but definitely needed more time to prepare for the match and be ready for hand one.”

That says a lot about what it takes to win in such an environment. The two treated the poker world to quite a show and there were plenty of hours of prep time to make that happen.