Re: Daniel Negreanu - Great Insider Gossip
Listen, like I said...I'm not anti-DN entirely. And I know some of the information was out there. I just don't like how recently he's started playing god of the poker universe, entitled to judge us all. And no, I'm not Ram or Mark or Annie Duke or Greg Raymer. No real axe to grind with the guy except for the actions I detailed.
Other than that, there are a couple of points of clarification that have been raised:
1) He was into fullcontact with a lot of his own money. That is a fact. Yes, it was a skin, but he was and remains heavily into it with his own cash. Now that it is no longer a skin, it is bleeding money far worse and it was bleeding money before. Yes, he sold off pieces to investors, but that was to pay the bills. He wanted to do it on his own and now there's nothing left to sell. Just a poor decision at this point. Nothing wrong with going for it in the first place, but when it doesn't work out, cut your losses.
2) Totally forgot to mention the golf losses. They were just north of $600K. I guess we all take our lumps gambling, but that's excessive unless your roll is around $10 mil. Also, remember, Daniel was not part of The Corporation that rolled Andy Beal (he has acknowledged that). That meant an extra $5 to $15 million for each member of The Corporation. I hear most every big-name poker player who rose to prominence during the boom (except for perhaps WSOP champs who make their cash on Stars) bought pieces of the primary participants. So, everyone has extra money courtesy of Andy Beal except Daniel. He didn't have the money to lose.
3) On-line poker. He admittedly loses at it and, from everyone I talked to, the big game goes less often because a lot of its participants can't be pulled away from their computers because they win on-line. I know, I know...the big game still goes and high stakes on-line has toughened up, but even DN has complained that the big game's frequency has been hurt by on-line.
4) Yes, I know the inference is that he was backing people with other people's money, but from what I hear, that's exactly the case.
5) Finally, everyone knew he rented the old place from Jennifer...but the new place. It's OK to rent off your friends, I agree...but the representation he implies is that the mansion is his, not a rental from her.
|