Daniel Negreanu “Kid Poker“

Birthplace
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hometown
Las Vegas, NV

Birthday
July 26

Total Winnings
$5,574,530

When Daniel Negreanu's parents immigrated to Canada from Romania, they hoped to provide a quiet and stable life for their sons, and they did. Negreanu grew up in a happy home, but he was not one to follow the lead of other kids. Uniquely, by the age of sixteen, his hobbies included sports betting and pool hustling. In addition, he saw backroom poker games being played and took note of the amounts of money available to skilled players. He learned the game, played poker with the adults, then took his game to high school to beat his fellow students. By the time he turned 21-years old, his love of poker took him to Las Vegas to try his hand against the pros, though he soon returned to Canada broke and was forced to build a new bankroll in the smaller games, then head back to Sin City to try again.

By the age of 22, Negreanu realized that he truly wanted to make a career of poker. At the same time, he dealt with the death of his father and decided that it was time to become serious about his life. With the cautious blessing of his mother, he moved to Vegas permanently and started to approach poker with a newfound dedication. And it worked. One year later, he captured his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $2000 Pot Limit Hold’em event, and at the young age of 23, he was the youngest player to win a WSOP event. The poker world took notice, and no one has been able to take their eyes off him since.

Today, Negreanu is one of the very best poker players in the game. With over $14.5 million in tournament winnings, he is one of the most profitable poker pros in history. He has four WSOP bracelets, along with two WPT titles and five other final tables. His two WPT wins came in 2004, which he admits was his best year ever in poker. He won the Borgata Poker Open, then the Five Diamond World Poker Classic that year, which helped him lock up the title of Season III WPT Player of the Year.

His run in 2004 may have been the best of his career thus far, but Negreanu has been consistently posting results that most players would kill for. He trails only Carlos Mortensen on the WPT all-time money earners list and rivals Erik Seidel as the top all-around tournament earner in history. Negreanu may have earned the nickname "Kid Poker" because of his accomplishments at a young age, but age doesn't appear to be slowing him down at all. He final tabled the WSOP Europe Main Event in both 2008 and 2009, has been working on his cash game, and claims he is playing some of his best poker in years. Recently he finished second in the 2011 PCA Super High Roller event, then followed that up with a third place showing at the WPT’s first-ever Super High Roller event at the Bellagio.