Negreanu Bets On GPI

On Saturday, an interesting little piece of GPI-related business went down over on a little site called Twitter. There, Daniel Negreanu sent out a couple of challenges that couldn’t help but capture this website’s attention. After all, we were his proposed vehicle. Take a look:

Daniel Negreanu: @RealKidPoker

“I’d like to bet that I crack the top 20 in the GPI http://www.globalpokerindex.com  by WSOP 2013. I’m currently ranked 31st. Get at me for action.”

And then…

Daniel Negreanu: @RealKidPoker

“I’m also willing to take 3.5-1 that I crack the top 10. You can also have action on ANYONE behind me.Whoever ranks higher by WSOP wins #GPI“

Well, how about that?

What Daniel is proposing with the first tweet isn’t entirely easy. There’s nothing he can do about the results he already has on his record for the last two years, so he’s suggesting his next year will be measurably better than eleven of the players ahead of him on the list, and the further up the list you go, the wider that gap needs to be. There aren’t a lot of weak names listed above his on that list. Take a look:

Meanwhile, the second tweet offers two bets. He recognized that top 10 is a pretty long shot and then offered to take himself against ANYONE behind him. Here’s just a small sample of some of the guys that includes:

There are some really tough names there.

Reading between the lines of Daniel’s offerings, there are a few things we know and a few more we can guess at:

• Daniel’s self-confidence hasn’t waned. For the record, he’s confirmed that for the first bet, he has to be ranked in the top 20 when WSOP starts, not just at any point between now and then.
• Daniel seems awfully likely to dedicate himself to a lot of live tournament play in the coming year.
• Daniel may be looking to incentivize poker for the upcoming year.
• Daniel’s Stars sponsorship comes into play here. The reality, it’s a lot easier for a guy in his situation to travel constantly for tournaments to make the kind of assertions these tweets suggest, than it would be for an unsponsored pro or one with a less-supportive deal.
• There are a lot of ways one can compare one’s self to one’s peers. He chose the stat around which this website has been built. From where globalpokerindex.com sits, that’s pretty cool.:)