Daniel Negreanu
Name – Daniel Negreanu
Birthday – July 26, 1974
Location – Toronto, Ontario
Online Screen Names – Double Suited (Poker Stars), Kid Poker (Full Contact)
Endorses – Poker Stars
Website – fullcontactpoker.com
Daniel Negreanu is one of the most recognisable faces in the world of poker because of the amazing achievements he has stacked up over the years. Splitting his time between Toronto and Las Vegas, poker has been his life since his late teens and remains so to this day.
Negreanu’s parents were native Romanians and moved to Canada just seven years before Negreanu was born. Negreanu was never going to live a normal life. He dropped out of high school before graduation and soon began his poker career at local casinos. As all of the casinos were charity casinos at that point but there were illegal games going on ever week or so. Negreanu used these games to build up his bankroll before leaving for Las Vegas with girlfriend Evelyn Ng in tow. She would also become a professional poker player in time. However, shortly after arriving in Las Vegas at 21, he had to return home to rebuild his bankroll.
When Negreanu returned to Las Vegas two years later, it was a very different story to his initial trip and he actually achieved the highest level of success possible within a year. He won two of the World Poker Final events at Foxwoods in 1997 and improved his bankroll substantially as a result. However, it was in 1998 that he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet. By winning the WSOP $2,000 Pot Limit Hold ‘Em event at age 24, he held the record for being the youngest holder of a bracelet in history until 2004.
However, those early tournaments were just the beginning. Before 2004, when he lost the record he set in 1998, Negreanu was prolific at the table. He won two World Poker Tour events, appeared at eleven final tables and also went on to win a further two WSOP bracelets. In fact, in 2004, he was named the WSOP player of the year and was the number one player in the world.
Negreanu capitalized on his popularity by setting up his own online poker room, Full Contact Poker in 2005. He endorsed his own site for months to build its popularity, and still does by having his own blog and forum on there. He actually launched a couple of searches for a poker protégé, and the results were pleasing considering the victors were Brian Fidler and Anthony Mak. In his own way, Negreanu has done his bit to take poker into the next generation. It wasn’t until June 2007 that Negreanu turned his attention away from Full Contact and to Poker Stars.
He signed for the website and now endorses it, alongside several other big name players. As a part of Team Poker Stars, Negreanu has really made it big, attracting stars like Tobey Maguire for coaching. His career continues to go from strength to strength and shows no sign of letting up just yet!