Not Kid-ding Around: Negreanu Sets Sights on GPI Top 10

Daniel Negreanu (GPI#24) had been part of the GPI Top 50 (give or take a few spots outside #50) for the past calendar year. Then, earlier this month, things took a turn for the worse as past results were erased from the GPI rankings and Kid Poker found himself ranked #103, the first time he would be ranked outside the Top 100 since the GPI’s inception.

Despite his best efforts, Kid Poker was losing ground, and fast.

“The Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”

The past twelve months have been filled with “comebacks” on the live tournament circuit.  Phil Hellmuth winning two bracelets, including one in an event other than Hold’em – something that many critics said he could never do, Antonio Esfandiari returning to poker’s elite with two big wins of his own and becoming mainstream media’s “face of poker” and even Mike Matusow winning the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.

Just like his fellow “Poker Boom” buddies, Negreanu had not visited the winner’s circle in a while.  It’s not to say that Negreanu was banished to obscurity, he had collected over a million dollars in the past three of four season on the live tournament circuit following his last WSOP bracelet in 2008.  He had won a side event at EPT Vilamoura and was victorious in his Canadian homeland at the BC Poker Championships and had earned 21 Top 10’s on the live tournament circuit since his last bracelet win, including a gut-wrenching defeat at the hands of Barry Shulman in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event.  But still, it just didn’t like it was enough.

And Then Came Melbourne

Having missed out on the Aussie Millions, there was nothing that was going to keep Daniel from missing the next big event in Melbourne, as the famed World Series of Poker brand was presenting WSOP Asia-Pacific for the very first time.  With five bracelets on the line, many of the biggest names of the game would be headed to the Crown Casino in hopes of winning gold Down Under.

Negreanu’s WSOP APAC started off strong, final tabling the 2K Mixed Event in which he saw his good friend Phil Ivey win his 9th career WSOP bracelet … but Negreanu’s Melbourne trip was far from being over.

Just a few days later, Negreanu would make the Final Table in the Main Event – sitting second in chips on FT day after contending throughout the tournament.  Former EPT London Champion Benjamin Spindler would hold the chip lead heading into Final Table play, however, Spindler would fizzle out early, opening the door for Kid Poker, and, from that point on, he never looked back.

A dominant final table performance would earn Negreanu a 11:1 chip lead heading into heads-up play.  And despite a few rough hands and close calls, Negreanu was able to dispose of his opponent and collect the fifth WSOP bracelet of his poker career and assuring a huge jump in the GPI poker rankings.

The Difference?

Many wondered what triggered Negreanu’s recent success?  “How about luck … luck plays a role in poker … sometimes you just don’t win, sometimes you do” said Negreanu in his most recent “Vlog Rant”.  Negreanu would go on to say “I’ve had my fair share of bad luck … but I had so much immense luck before that, I mean, in 2004, I don’t think I lost a flip” – seems like Daniel may be selling himself short a bit but given the documented suck outs against Daniel in the past few years, it’s easy to see why Negreanu is so happy that things look to be turning around on the luck side.

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GPI Goal in Sight

As he does yearly, Negreanu posted his goals for 2013 at the start of the season and things are looking good early for the PokerStars Team Pro, including his GPI Top 10 goal:

• End 2013 in the Top 10 on the GPI: After starting April outside the Top 100, Negreanu has already skyrocketed to #24.  A strong performance at the EPT Grand Final and the WSOP this summer and Negreanu may be sitting pretty by the end of the summer!
  
• Cash for 1.5M in tournaments: Wow, this goal is almost complete!  Currently sitting at over 1.1M, Negreanu should be able to cross this one off the list shortly
• Win a bracelet in 2013: Done, move along
• Move up on WSOP cash list: So far, so good.  Negreanu has already moved past Chau Giang with his 60th and 61st all-time cashes.  He now sits alone in 9th on the list with John Juanda and Berry Johnston one up on Kid Poker.  Chris Ferguson sits at 63
• Move up to 35th on the WSOP All-Time Money List: Negreanu has already moved way up to 28th with his APAC win.  But, others are expected to earn big scores in Vegas and, as Daniel mentions, some in the Main Event will automatically move ahead of him

You can find the full list of Negreanu’s 2013 goals here >>>  Daniel’s Poker Journal

It will certainly be fun to see where Negreanu goes from here.  What was originally a one-bracelet goal for 2013 has now become much more as his eyes are set on bracelets #6 and #7.  Negreanu enters the WSOP in Vegas with the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year race almost ten years after he won the WSOP PoY … he is currently ranked #62 on the GPI Player of the Year Leaderboard and may very well be eyeing Mike Watson’s GPI #1 Canada title.  Although Negreanu has always been the face of poker in Canada, Mike Watson is the most prominent player in the Great White North at the moment.  Not only is Watson the #1 player in Canada, he also leads the 2013 GPI Player of the Year Race and is ranked #2 overall on the GPI, trailing Marvin Rettenmaier by a little over 100 points.

Negreanu has already confirmed that his stop on the live tournament circuit will be the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo where he is expected to play the Main Event as well as the High Roller and Super High Roller events, amongst others.

One thing is for sure, the poker world is certainly a fun world to live in when players like Daniel Negreanu are running good!