Daniel Negreanu Had a Productive Year at the Poker Tables Despite a Few Misses

Posted on: December 28, 2022, 08:38h. 

Last updated on: December 28, 2022, 03:26h.

Erik Gibbs Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Gaming Business, Global Gaming.

Poker is full of faces whose names are forever imprinted on the game. Alex Foxen, Daniel Negreanu, and Doyle Brunson are a few who have excelled over the years. Negreanu proved that, based on his 2022 performance, he’s still a formidable opponent on the felt.

Daniel Negreanu
Poker pro Daniel Negreanu contemplates a hand during a tournament. The champion poker player had another successful year at the tables. (Image: Head Topics)

The 48-year-old Canadian poker pro, known as “Kid Poker” or “DNegs,” earned his first cash in July 1997, when he finished 10th at the Orleans Open $230 NLHE event. Less than a month later, according to Hendon Mob, he took down the $225 NLHE Heavenly Hold’em event in Los Angeles for $18,800.

He’s been on a fairly solid run – with a few bumps along the way – ever since. The GGPoker ambassador now has six WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles to his credit, and ended 2022 with a gross profit of $1.62 million.

Kid Poker’s Ups and Downs

No poker player is successful all the time. There are bad beats, bad decisions, badly timed bluffs and laydowns that all combine with the uncertainty of any given hand to make poker so exciting.

DNegs had his bad moments as well, like when his pocket aces lost to pocket jacks in the Poker Masters when another jack appeared for his opponent on the flop. However, he turned that around when he took down the $300K NLHE Super High Roller Bowl for $3.3 million shortly after.

On Monday, Negreanu took to Twitter and shared how 2022 worked out for him on the felt. On the surface, he didn’t have much to complain about, as he still came out ahead.

He participated in 107 events, cashing in 23 of them. In total, he spent slightly more than $3.22 million on buy-ins and pocketed $4.87 million in winnings.

Negreanu also gave a running tally of his performances each year since 2013. During that time, he’s won a little more than $13.13 million, for a yearly average of $1.45 million. However, 2016 and 2017 were bad years, as they both resulted in negative cash of over $1.3 million.

This year, DNegs had several six-figure pots, including $350K for a first-place finish at a $25K event during the PokerGO Cup in February. He also took down the $15,300 NLHE event at the Wynn High Roller in March for $216K.

The 2022 earnings only represent the pots he collected. They don’t take into account any related expenses, such as travel and accommodations, or shares he sold to back him in events. Those details add up. But his side gigs, including the books he’s written, public appearances, his arrangement with GGPoker, and others, make up for some of those losses.

Making Mega-Millionaires

Poker continues to draw in a record number of players, and although Negreanu still ranks among the best, he has some stiff competition. There have been others to emerge over the years that are challenging him, including Phil Hellmuth and some of the game’s other long-standing greats.

Bryn Kenney is undoubtedly one of these. He is second on the all-time money list, according to Hendon Mob, with more than $57.2 million in live poker winnings. That’s one spot ahead of Negreanu.

Kenney only has one WSOP bracelet, but is a massively successful grinder. His biggest win came in 2019, when he finished second at the Triton Million event. Despite not taking down the tournament, he banked more than $20.5 million.

Justin Bonomo, despite a few alleged missteps throughout his career (playing through multiple accounts in online tournaments, for example), can pretty much write his own ticket anywhere. The leading money winner has pocketed almost $59 million and has four WSOP bracelets to his name.

In 2005, when he was just 19, he became the youngest player to be on a televised final table when he finished fourth in the inaugural European Poker Tour event. He’s still excelling this year, notching four first-place finishes for a combined $449K, and a fourth-place finish in another for $720K.

His biggest claim to fame, though, is probably his performance in 2018. That year, he earned more than $25 million as he made deep runs in one event after another.