Daniel Negreanu: "It's a Good, Solid Start"

Daniel Negreanu is in a class by himself and, as such, measures himself to a standard not many other humans could possibly achieve. In the first week of the World Series of Poker Negreanu made two final tables with a third place and runner-up finishes. His team took third place in the $10,000 Tag Team event.

A week of two WSOP final tables could make a Series for anyone else, but not for Negreanu it’s just a reasonable start. “Jason Mercier talks about it too – I usually start off like 0-8, 0-10 or even 0-11, so it’s nice to come out of the gate and go 2-4 in the first four events,” Negreanu said. “It’s a good solid start.”

“Obviously, I would have liked to win,” he said. “But I thought I played good in both of them, so that’s what’s most important.”

Negreanu returned severely short-stacked on Wednesday for the final of the $10,000 Omaha HiLo Championship against Abe Mosseri. “Yeah, I’m definitely frustrated,” he said. “It was such a grueling match – we played three-handed for six hours. Then I come back and I’m ready to play and ok – one hand away. Hand four – good game – that was a little quick. We played four hands, and I lost all four.”

Following that event, he drew Adrian Mateos in the first round of the $10,000 Heads Up Championship. “This (Heads-Up Event) is bottom of the list of all the $10Ks I play. I have done well in the past; I’ve gotten to the quarter-finals a couple times,” said Negreanu. “Overall, it typically plays pretty slow, so I want to shoot people in the face, but Adrian is not slow, so we won’t have that problem.”

“I get frustrated by the pace of play, I’m not a No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up specialist player – I haven’t put in the work to do that,” Negreanu continued. “Also, the WSOP is about poker and poker is more than just Hold’em. Outside of the WSOP, people focus on only Hold’em. 

“The reason I play and come to WSOP and put it above all other events is Mixed Games,” he added. “So this is not something I get excited for and can’t wait to play.”

“There are no days off at the World Series of Poker, well maybe, depending how you do in another tournament,” said Negreanu. “If it’s not this one, then its’ the $10K Dealers Choice – you play all the games, it’s lots of fun. After that, expect to see me every day in the Mixed Game Events, high buy-in events and avoiding all the big field, No Limit events.”