"You can tell if you lose this pot, you can tell the people back home you got unlucky, otherwise you'd have won this tournament for sure." "Okay." "Shoot, that's a bad flop for you." "Boy." "Now he needs a queen, ace or a ten." "Everything but." "He's in." "Good cash, anyway, right?" "Yeah." "Not everybody cashes in the EPT Grand Final in Monaco." "That's right." "And you just did." "When you think of poker, most people think of Daniel Negreanu." "We knew that he was always going to be a winner." "There was just something about him." "When I met Daniel he was already a legend." "Six bracelets, two WPT titles." "His understanding of the game is peerless." "Daniel is clearly the best tournament poker player in the world." "He's seen poker in all of its different incarnations in the past 20 years and he's still talking up a storm while doing it." "I can't even imagine what kind of legacy he'll have in the game." "He crushes it." "My brother wrote his own rules." "He went through a phase where his ego ran riot." "Daniel made bad decisions." "He ended up having to start over." "Daniel was super-driven, very outspoken." "Very opinionated." "That's what we love about him." "Universally loved." "He's usually right." "I can't think of too many people who've done more for the game of poker today." "He's never turned anybody down when they needed him." "I think Daniel Negreanu is the most notable, most recognised, most famous poker player... in the world." "KIDPOKER" "Subrip:" "Pix" "This is where I started." "It's been so long since I've been here." "To be honest with you, when the whole thing came calling as I turned 40, it didn't really sink in." "I mean, I expected it, I'm not gonna lie." "Like, I figured that if I wasn't inducted, what exactly do I gotta do to get in this thing then?" "So it wasn't a shock." "It didn't really sink in, till I was up there and shared what I wanted to share." "And went through the journey in my head of how it all started." "I was born in 1974 in Toronto, Canada." "Both my parents are from Romania." "They came to Canada in about 1967 with five dollars in their pocket and really just worked their way up." "They started, like, doing candy floss at the exhibition." "But my dad was an electrician." "Started to work in the electrical department." "Then they started to buy houses and rent them out, and speculate and all that kind of stuff." "They did a great job of creating an upper middle-class life from essentially nothing." "My dad knew very little English." "He knew, in Romanian, you say, "I'm gonna do something," you say, "Okay, fuck." Right?" "So he would have, like, these moments where he'd be working for someone, and the lady would say, "Okay, I need you to do this." And he'd say, "Okay, fuck."" "And he would keep saying..." "Eventually, she's like, "Why do you keep saying that?"" "And he's like..." "He didn't get that was a bad word in English." "True story!" "He almost got in a big fight, when the husband came home." ""Why do you want to fuck my wife?" "!"" "My childhood, I would describe it as typical European-style childhood." "My mother, she cooked, she cleaned, she was sweet." "She fed everybody." "You came over to the house, you're like, "I'm not hungry, I'm good."" "She'd put a plate of food in front of you and make you eat it." "My dad was always filling your cup, make sure you had a drink." "Very hospitable, very loving." "I would say more on the liberal side." "Open." "You know, they talked about whatever in front of me." "We just had a perfect, loving family." "Get that?" "Yeah." "My parents were selfless." "They both loved me and my brother more than, you know, anyone could imagine and they were great role models." "My mum, just that generous, selfless heart, of just giving." "She'd been through a lot in her life." "She had nine miscarriages." "She had five boys, four girls." "Finally, my brother and me." "It's one of the reasons I think that she was so smothering and spoiling." "Cos she just cherished us so much more, because of all she suffered to go through to just have us." "And my dad was like my best friend." "We'd watch TV late." "I'd pretend to fall asleep so he'd carry me up to my bed." "Now it starts to scratch?" "He taught me how to be hospitable and generous." "My dad was just that guy." "If we had a party and there was somebody who wasn't having fun, my dad could sense it." "He would make a joke." "Crack a joke with them, liven up the mood." "And I feel like I got a lot of those traits from my father." "I think of other people and the rough childhoods they've had, and I was really blessed." "Well, at school I was a bit of a know-it-all and a bit of a..." "When people would fight me, I didn't care how big they were, I would fight back." "Maybe some might consider him a brat." "A troublemaker." "I don't know if it was because he was always a smaller kid, so he had to prove that, he was heard." "My brother always knew that I had his back." "So he'd let his mouth get him in trouble." "When I was in the first grade, Mike was in the sixth grade." "He was six foot tall already." "He was really a big kid." "It's actually part of the reason I have a big mouth." "He's the big protector guy and he would absolutely take a bullet for me." "There were numerous times when I would have to like settle his battles for him or just let people know that Daniel has a bigger brother." "I was a small guy." "I'd fight for myself but having my brother as back-up certainly made it easier." "The truth is, I was actually really cocky." "My teachers actually..." "they shouldn't have liked me, but I think they did like me and appreciate me." "Often, I would come to class with a pillow." "My brother found class so boring." "He stood up from his desk, walked to the back of the class, laid on the floor and went to sleep." "And the teacher says, "You can't do that."" "Well, he goes, "I'm tired." "This is boring."" "Structure for my brother wasn't on his priority list." "He did things when he wanted to do things." "And... it was always difficult for him to follow the rules." "I was a tough kid." "There's a letter my mum got me for my birthday a few years ago from when I was ten years old." "And it reads..." "This is, like, five days into school, cos it starts on September 6th." ""Dear Mrs Negreanu, I am writing as a follow up to my telephone conversation with you Tuesday, September 11, 1984." "I want it clearly understood that I will not tolerate" "Daniel's poor manners or behaviour." "In light of your own position to always support and excuse Daniel," "I will have no option but to remove him from school should he continue to ignore the school rules."" "I love that one!" "It was so funny, cos that's what she was." ""It wasn't Daniel's fault, couldn't be."" "School wasn't easy for him." "We couldn't figure out why." "We later found out that he looked at things in a different way." "I think Daniel's just misunderstood, because, instead of thinking in the box, he was drawing his own lines and his lines were a lot bigger than that box." "So they put him in gifted math class, to accelerate his desire to learn." "I was always a numbers geek and it was just very fun for me to look at numbers." "When I was a kid and I used to play video games..." "I'd play a baseball game or something, and I wrote down the stats." "I kept logs of it, so I knew like, you know, three for 11 is 372..." "or 373, pardon me!" "I total believe that my brother was never challenged enough in school." "He found things to be boring all the time." "He always wanted to find out, "What's next?"" "Sometimes I'd just sit there with my mother going," ""What are we going to do with him?"" "He doesn't listen." "He does what he wants, but yet, everything he does he excels and does well." "How are you supposed to discipline someone for always doing well?" "By the time I was in high school, I actually did really well." "But then I started to, you know, go down the other path." "I was going to the pool halls with my friends Regev and Oren." "Oren and Regev are essentially like my brothers." "We grew up in Toronto, you know, becoming men and doing all kinds of bad stuff." "Trouble?" "Us?" "Never." "We were really nice." "We got in trouble." "I asked like that." "My God!" "In about two seconds, he did nothing." "What did you do that for?" "I thought you wanted everything." "No, his hair, not his eyebrows!" "Hey, man!" "Look at my eyebrow!" "It's cool." "Daniel, you trust me so far." "Oren and Regev?" "Brothers from another mother." "We were always like the clowns of the class, making everybody laugh." "He was the entertainer of the group, by far." "But tomorrow I'll be better." "Tomorrow, you'll look the same." "You know, it was all about just having fun." "Not doing bad stuff, but just doing funny stuff." "We didn't really like school." "Unfortunately, the pool hall was really close to school." "So it made it really easy for us, before we could even drive, to make that trip." "It was a place to hang out." "After school or on the weekends, evenings, they would just go congregate and play billiards." "And he got really good at playing snooker." "And he made some money on that felt as well." "We were gambling for five bucks and drink and, you know, the table charge, so it wasn't like big gambling, but it was where I was entered into that world where I met some people who played poker and I sort of got introduced to it." "I thought it was all luck, but then I noticed the same guys keep winning and the same guys keep losing." "I was like, "Interesting."" "So I went to the library to get a book on the game, and I was like, "You don't play king-seven off-suit?"" "It was such a shock to me, cos I had no idea." "And then me, Regev and Oren, we'd play in the basement just for fun." "When he started, we knew that he was always gonna be really good at it." "When he puts a target, he'll do anything to get it." "Playing poker, you saw there was a gleam in his eye." "I think that's when a light went off and Daniel started hosting more games at our home in the basement." "He'd have his friends over and you'd see people coming in and out of the house." "And some people would have smiles and some people would leave being really upset because he would just clean them out." "He made so much money it was like a clinic." "And, even to this day, it makes me laugh!" "From there, we escalated to some of the private clubs." "And they were all older guys." "They were in their 40s, 50s and beyond." "So I was the young kid." "I was "Kid Poker"." "After about two, three months of playing with this regular crew," "I started to become a winner myself." "Something changed." "School didn't become his priority any more." "He does well when he's there." "But attendance was a problem." "Well, to be honest, my mother was not supportive of what I was doing as a teenager." "My dad was." "He was like on the black market as a kid." "He was kind of a hustler." "He knew I'd be okay." "My mother was more concerned." "She said, "Daniel, forget about the poker." "You go to school!"" "We were always taught to believe you go to school, you follow the rules, you get a good job." "And you work and you're gonna have a good life." "But for Daniel that wasn't the case." "My brother wrote his own rules." "I really started to take it seriously when I was playing in charity casinos," "Monday to Friday, noon to eight." "We'd play $10, $20 limit hold'em, and I was making about $44 an hour." "You know, my teacher, he'd be trying to tell me what to do and I'm like," ""At 18, 19, I make more money than you do." "Why would I listen to you?" "Pff!"" "I felt such a passion for poker and I felt like this was my calling that I didn't even finish high school, despite the fact that I loved school." "In the beginning, my mother was totally against my brother playing poker, for the simple reason that it wasn't a career." "It wasn't received well by her peers." "My mother was on the phone with one of her friends." "Her friend said, "I don't want my son doing what yours does."" "And this is a guy who sold car stereos out of the back of a truck that were stolen, as well as cocaine." "And my mother, being fierce, the way she was, she let her have it and she defended my brother." "When my mother saw that her friend put Daniel down, that was it." "And we knew." "Then, after that point, my mother was proud to say," ""My son, he's a poker player and he's good."" "So I remember that moment, thinking to myself," ""I want to make my mother proud of what I do."" "It was interesting." "After my brother would come home from playing poker, my mother would always ask, "Daniel..."" "Or she'd say, "Danielle." "How d'you do today?"" "He's like, "Mummy, you know, I did okay." "I was up, I was down, I was even."" "But every now and then, he would just like, he would take money." "He would have like a fat stack of cash and he would throw it on the ground." "He'd say, "Mummy, look." "What is that?"" "And she would look and she'd go, "Wooh-hoo!"" "And she'd have to pick it all up and sit there and count it, one at a time." "I think that made him laugh, just feel good because my mother, growing up, she never had much of anything." "And then my brother would come home in a car, a Honda Prelude, that he won in a poker game." "So my mother said, "Daniel, where did you get this car?"" ""Don't worry about it, Mummy." "I just won it at poker."" "So she just looked at him." "So he would come home with like stacks of cash, cars..." ""How do you get all this?" "Mummy, I play poker."" "My brother started touring." "Going to different places, different events, playing different poker tournaments." "Okay, let me put the cake on light." "Our dad was starting to get a little ill at the time." "But still wanted my brother... to go live his dream." "Cheers, Daddy." "Cheers, Daniel." "My dad was a big, strong guy." "He was a boxer as a teenager." "In good health." "You know, he worked as an electrician till he was 60-something." "And then, all of a sudden, everything about his health just kind of faded." "I was in Windsor playing poker." "I remember getting a call that my dad was really, really sick and that he might, you know, he might go." "We got in the car and we were going to drive back, but the roads were so icy." "And I saw cars in the ditches left and right." "And I didn't have a nice car." "I'm like, "We'll never make it." "It's a three-hour drive."" "So we turned back and we said, "Okay, we'll go in the morning when it's safer."" "On the way back, halfway there," "I got the call that he'd passed away." "So I wasn't there, you know, for the last moments." "We lost our icon." "This is my father's big nose." "He was everything to us." "Look who's talking!" "We took it all really hard." "My dad was my superman." "I had to separate myself somewhat from the father that I knew and this, you know, shell of who he was when he died." "My brother was only 21 years old." "He was still young." "Nothing was concrete in his life yet." "But poker was there and I think it gave him that outlet and ability to express himself and just... focus on something other than the pain we were suffering as a family." "My father always made the best of things." "He always believed in us kids." "Whatever we did, he goes, "Mike, Daniel, do what you have to do, but be the best."" "Smile." "Let's see your nice, beautiful teeth." "My beautiful teeth?" "Yeah, smile." "Okay, if you want me to smile." "Smile." "Cheese!" "Daniel was always driven." "And with my father's passing," "I think it gave him even more focus on being successful at what was his passion." "I remember, as a teenager, watching the old ESPN footage of the World Series of Poker and seeing Phil Hellmuth win and being like, "That's so cool."" "Just these old-school gamblers, they had stories." "They were so interesting." "Guys like Eskimo Clark and Devilfish and all these guys." "Like Sammy Farha." "They came from different worlds." "I wanted to experience that." "So he made some money here, a couple of grand, and figured, "You know what?" "I'm going to give it a shot."" "My mother said, "Daniel, where are you going?"" ""Mummy, I'm going to Vegas." "I'm going to make it."" "I remember when I first came to Las Vegas, I was on the Strip and I thought it was like a fantasy land." "I remember thinking to myself, "This is where I belong."" "I went down to the Horseshoe, where all the history happened." "I had, like, maybe a $3,000 bankroll." "And, about 24 hours later, I had no bankroll." "I left Vegas feeling distraught." "I went back to Toronto and after a few days kind of said, "Okay, I'm going to rebuild."" "Had some friends who loaned me a bit of money, so I could play ten, 20 limit hold'em games." "And when I had my next bankroll of 3,000," "I made another trip to Vegas." "And, very similar story." "Five or six trips, I went to Las Vegas," "I went with a bankroll and left without one." "There were times my brother came back from Vegas broke." "But... he had that desire." "He says, "I'm going back." "They're not going to beat me."" "Essentially, what I would do is, there would be charter flights on Thursdays and Sundays back to Toronto." "On Wednesday night, if I was short on money," "I would play all night till Thursday and, if I had enough money to stay," "I would stay till Sunday and then again I'd do the same thing." "By Saturday night, if I was short of money, I'd play all night and if I didn't have any money, I'd go home on the Sunday flight." "I basically got a place at Budget Suites." "It had a TV, it had a bed, it had a kitchen and a bathroom." "You know, basic needs." "And, after a while, when I would go back to Toronto, I knew I was coming back, so I would just keep it and I started to keep more and more stuff there." "In the younger years, my mum went down to see my brother in Vegas." "Make sure he was fed, clothed." "Make sure that he had family around him and good support." "Daniel was alone." "He didn't know anybody." "I felt better because I could always keep tabs on him, knowing that my mother was there." "She just enjoyed being close to me." "She'd cook for me, do my laundry and all that stuff that she wanted to do." "I never made her." "That's what she wanted to do." "My mother supported me through it all." "I remember a very, very, very important story early in my development, where I was playing in a seven-hand game." "It was like three in the morning." "And I went broke." "I lost my last chips." "I went to the bathroom." "Washed my face, washed my hands." "Came out." "All of them were gone." "It was the first time in my life where I realised, like, "My God!" "I was the sucker."" "They were playing because of me." "In Toronto, I was a bull." "I just pushed people around." "But in Vegas, they're like, "We've seen these home-town heroes come and go." "They're a dime a dozen." So I needed to learn how to have a better table image." "How to change the way that I was playing." "Not just be 100% bull." "I had to tone it down a little bit." "I learned a lot." "From there, things started to change for me." "I was playing in a satellite, to play in my first-ever World Series of Poker event." "Me and Todd Brunson got heads up." "I got lucky and beat him." "Then he said, "Why don't I take a piece of you in the tournament tomorrow?"" "I wasn't even going to play, cos that was all my money." "But I was like, "Well, if Todd Brunson thinks I can win, maybe I should play."" "My goal was just really to enjoy the experience and maybe cash." "My first table was, you know, a murderers' row at the time." "There was Eric Seidel, Humberto Brenes," "Men Nguyen, Johnny Chan, Dan Harrington." "And I remember bluffing Johnny Chan and thinking," ""Woah!" "He didn't catch me."" "And then I caught Erik Seidel trying to bluff me." "So, in that moment, I was like, "You know what?" "I can play with these guys." "I can do it."" "I was dating Todd Brunson." "Daniel makes it to the final table." "And Todd comes home and he says," ""You know, I took a piece of this kid, but I don't really know his name..." "Daniel Niagara, Daniel N, Daniel something." "And you're going to be down at the Horseshoe playing anyway, so could you watch him and keep an eye on him, and make sure whatever he cashes out that you get the money from him?"" "And I said, "Sure."" "So I was playing cash games and I'd run over and see how he's doing." "Then I go play cash again and run over and see how he's doing." "And then ninth place left, eighth place left, seventh place left, sixth place left, fifth place." "By fourth place, I said, "Okay, I'm just going to quit my cash game and watch him, cos this is ridiculous." Cos I'm actually excited for him and nervous for him," "not even knowing who the man is." "I ended up heads up against a kid named Dominic Bourke, who was so much better than I was at pot limit hold'em." "I got in with like a coin-flip situation." "It was 50-50." "I didn't even see the card." "It was fuzzy." "I looked at the crowd." "I knew most of them were cheering for me." "I saw them raise their arms, so I must have won." "And I fell to my knees." "It was just surreal because it felt like I didn't deserve it yet, it was too early in the game." "My first event and I won already." "I walked right up to him and said, "Hi, I'm Jennifer." "Nice to meet you." "Congratulations." I gave him a big hug." "And he was so excited." "We went to the bar." "We went for beers that night and then every night for like a week straight, and we became really, really close friends." "I never did get the money from him like I was supposed to!" "But he paid Todd the next day and that's how it all started." "We were kind of inseparable after that." "At the time, I was the youngest player ever to win a bracelet." "And I remember in that moment feeling like I've sort of arrived, if you will." "I was definitely emerging right around that time in my career." "The poker world wasn't that big back then." "A lot of the big players I was playing with, they didn't know Daniel." "A World Series of Poker bracelet's big, but in the cash games, it's more about being good in the cash games." "She was always playing in super-high limit games." "She would let me watch her play." "I would lick my chops and go, "I wish I could play in this game one day."" "As far as his skill, he was probably there to play, but as far as his bankroll, he wasn't in the shape to play in those games." "And Daniel basically made bad decisions." "I was kinda crazy." "If I had $10,000, I'd put it on the table." "She's like, "You need some bankroll management skills."" "One night, I think he had $30,000 to his name." "And he was so drunk, he couldn't even walk." "And he came up to me and said, "I'm gonna play in this game."" "And I'd take him aside and I said," ""Daniel, you have $30,000." "You cannot play in this game." "It's one buy-in." I said, "If you lose a couple of hands, you're done."" "And it was like me hitting my head against the wall, because he... he wasn't going to listen to me." "So he sat down and played." "And he ended up going broke and having to start over again." "There was a lot of doubt at that point." "Months of really being introspective and digging deeper, and saying like, you know, "What do I got to do to make it work?" "Can I?" "Am I capable?" "Am I good enough?"" "You know, people when they first are starting poker make bad decisions." "He was one of them." "I'm not throwing stones in a glass house, because I made bad decisions when I first started out playing." "So I tried to give him a little bit of wisdom from what I knew, from the experience that I had in the past." "And he listened." "I learned a lot." "She's a great player." "Really, really smart." "Really intuitive." "And just learned a lot about life too and sort of balance." "I think he probably played poker 80, 90 hours a week." "Some crazy amount of hours, grinding, trying to build back a bankroll." "Daniel put in enough hard work to get everybody's respect and he did work hard." "Mirage is where I sweat blood and tears, if you will, really learning." "But I enjoyed it." "I had so much confidence that those were just character-building moments for me." "Cos I'd wake up in the morning ready to go." "He learned a lot of lessons, but he did learn." "And the good ones do learn." "My first event that I'd played on television was in 1999." "It was the US Poker Championship." "And I got heads up against John Bonetti, who was a legend, you know, at the time." "It's going to be a very exciting showdown to see who can take it here." "And a clash of eras." "John Bonetti's 71 years old." "He has a lot of respect for Danny, one of the young guns coming up." "Going into it, I wasn't thinking about the TV table." "The night before, I thought about what I was going to wear and it was going to be my patented tracksuit which was like, you know, half white, half black with the Nike hat." "I was like a mini Andre Agassi lookalike type thing." "And really green to it all, but very comfortable, oddly." "Cameras didn't bother me." "I felt very comfortable under the lights." "Want to look at 'em?" "Well, I didn't call yet." "Well, I ain't got no tens." "He takes it back!" "The gamesmanship here!" "Do I want to flip?" "Let's give him a hand!" "Attaboy, Danny." "Go ahead." "John Bonetti looks like he's trying to goad him into the final showdown." "And he's going in!" "He's going to play the low percentage because he has a feeling about the card." "And the feeling is correct!" "Danny Negreanu takes the spade!" "He will take a stranglehold on this tournament." "And it's a full boat." "Danny Negreanu gets it done." "Hoses the show with a full house." "So this 25 year old has got $210,000 and is on top of the poker world." "Bonetti's so good a player that I decided this is going to be my best shot at winning the tournament." "Luckily a spade hit and, you know, it's all over now." "Then people started to take him seriously." "He knew he was going to be a staple in the poker world." "He was here to stay." "When I met Daniel, he was already a legend." "He had already won a bracelet." "It was in Atlantic City." "I think I was 23, 22." "I'm 38 now, so maybe that was 15 years ago." "I always would be asking him questions about certain hands." "He always gives an honest answer." "Right away, we became pretty friendly." "Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham." "Also John Juanda." "The four of us." "We're the only really young guns that were playing in these tournaments at the time." "There was not people under 30 and we were in our early 20s." "So we grew together, you know, we learned together." "We'd go to dinners, we'd talk poker." "Every day we felt like we were learning." "That was a good time." "You don't think about those times while they're happening." "You look back on your life and you think that was a good time." "We had a lot of fun back then." "Daniel, obviously, made a name for himself right in the beginning." "There was just something about him." "It's unexplainable." "Super-driven and you just kind of knew that he was going to be the guy in poker." "We knew as a family that Daniel was going to succeed." "It wasn't a question if he was going to, it was just a matter of when." "In the Romanian culture, when a child turns one year old, there's a little ceremony we have..." "the child's placed in a high chair." "And in that high chair there's like a little tray." "And on that tray is various items." "Those items can range from books to tools, money." "And whatever items your child picks, that's their future." "The first thing my brother grabbed was gold and money." "You can't deny your destiny." "By the end of 1999, I had a really good year." "I won the US Poker Championship." "Won a bunch in the cash games and I had myself about 300,000 in a bag, covered in dirty laundry, with a cheque on one side that said $210,000 Taj Mahal winner, going through the airport with that." "Brought it back to Vegas and said, "Okay." "As of January 1st the year 2000, this is where I live."" "I was basically a cash game grinder." "I was playing two and 400." "I moved up to three and six, four and eight, all the way up till four and 8,000." "So even before the poker boom, before the WPT and the World Series being on TV," "I built up a significant bankroll, playing in the biggest games in the world." "Ultimately, I finally built up enough money so I could play in the big game and got to play with Jennifer." "But cash felt more like work." "Going to the office, put in your hours, get your pay cheque." "Tournaments was the dessert, the gravy." "Whether I had a lot of money or not, that was secondary." "I loved the game so much." "I loved tournaments so much because there was a beginning, middle and an end, and there was a trophy at the end and it was like an accomplishment." "After my bracelet in 1998," "I was like, "Well, this is easy!" "I'm just gonna win one every year and whatever."" "But then I went year after year, and there was quite a big gap in terms of my first and my second bracelet." "During that period, you know, I went through some struggles." "I was learning to play a lot of the games." "I was a mixed game player." "I've always been." "I was playing high limits and going through the ups and downs and battles with the confidence." "That's always something you're going to face, especially as you move up in levels and play against better and better opponents." "You ask yourself, "Am I better than them, or is this my limit?" "Can I not push any further?"" "And so, not wining a bracelet for years, makes you feel like, "I don't know." "Maybe there's something I'm doing wrong."" "And it was just a really nice relief, if anything, to win that second bracelet in 2003." "I first came across Daniel when the WPT first came on TV." "And he was kind of on the fringes." "And then that summer, I think, it was 2004, the World Series of Poker, it was the first year where I think they aired the final table of every single event." "And, of course, that was an amazing World Series for Daniel." "Lately, I've been coming second, third and that gets frustrating." "You start to wonder." "I get John Juanda needling me all the time." ""You don't know how to finish!" "Your short-handed game's no good!"" "Where's he at?" "Yeah!" "It's like a relief." "I felt like I was going to win a bracelet this year." "This is not garbage." "This is nice." "See the bracelet?" "I'm here this month to win bracelets." "I'm here to win that Best All-round Player award." "That's been my goal and I feel like I'm halfway there." "Building off the back of that," "I think it was in the very next season of the WPT," "I think he won like two events back to back." "Starting out in third chip position with 950,000 in chips, is 30-year-old Daniel Negreanu, another superstar in the poker world, but has yet to claim a WPT title." "Let's see if he can do it here tonight." "I got a phone call." "It's Daniel." "He says, "Mike, I made a final table." "Are you gonna come?" I'm like, "Absolutely."" "He was in the zone." "There was nothing you could do that day to beat him." "60 to call." "That's a very nice lay down." "Look at this!" "Daniel shows him a queen." "Yes, he does." "But what a little toy play Daniel made there." "Putting doubt in the mind of Josh." "You can read it on his face." "He thinks he laid down the best hand." "300,000." "This is a great value bet by Daniel Negreanu here." "The flop master, everybody." "The flop master!" "Me and my mother, we were just ecstatic to watch him in his element." "He was playing so good and just to watch people cheer for him, that was like, "People are cheering for my little brother."" "It was just an amazing day." "You're all in?" "Yeah." "What is he waiting on?" "I call." "Well, he does call." "He was being dramatic." "Of course he's gonna call it!" "You got aces versus kings." "Two aces." "They're very close in chips." "Nice slow roll." "Yeah!" "That's a good one." "Well, a jack comes off." "Right now, David Williams must catch a king." "This thing could be over." "It is over!" "It is." "Daniel Negreanu is our champion." "He has done it!" "Yeah!" "Finally!" "Yes!" "Yeah!" "Well, you see the jubilation in Daniel." "A few months later, a week before the final event of 2004, a gentleman by the name of David Pham had passed me in the Card Player of the Year race." "So I needed out of 400 players to come in the top nine in the World Poker Tour event there." "Not only did I make the top nine," "I did so with the biggest chip lead in history." "Nearly $7 million in chips!" "Boy!" "He's the man in poker right now." "Daniel Negreanu." "He's the Tournament Player of the Year and he's got a commanding chip lead here." "He'll be the man to beat for sure tonight." "I'm all in." "I knew you'd do that." "She's going all in." "There's no friends on the green felt, that's for sure." "Right back into the chip leader's face." "Okay, he's going lay it down." "A nice re-raise there by Jennifer." "You keep trying that, little girl." "Just a tremendous over-raise by Kid Poker, Daniel Negreanu." "$4 million and I can tell you, folks, when you get hit with a re-raise like that, your two fives shrivel up like a spider on a hot stove." "And it's gonna work." "You're not gonna like it." "Daniel shows him the three, folks!" "Now that is like a kidney blow if you're Humberto Brenes right now." "That is the needle extraordinaire." "No!" "3.4 million." "I've never been able to say that before." "That's so fun." "Okay, you can have it!" "Can you make any suggestions?" "How about...4.2 million?" "That's gonna set both his opponents all in." "This power poker being demonstrated by Daniel Negreanu right now." "Daniel knows he'll get paid off on the turn." "He's assuming Humberto puts him on a draw." "He's gonna bet the four of a kind." "550,000." "Humberto quickly calls him, thinking ace high might be the best hand." "My gosh!" "Look at Humberto." "You can just feel the air going out of his balloons there." "Going for the big..." "That's a million he's setting out there, folks." "Humberto's going all in with him." "A major mistake here by Humberto." "So here we go." "Nearly $6 million in this pot." "Daniel clenches the fist." "He can taste his second World Poker Tour title here right now." "Here's the turn." "Well, a six comes off." "Daniel doesn't like that card." "He knows a five will win the pot right now for Humberto, as well as an eight." "Here comes the river." "Yes!" "Daniel Negreanu has done it!" "He is due in the elite company of Gus Hanson, Howard Lederer and Eric Lindgren, to capture his second World Poker Tour title." "Mummy!" "Look at this, Kid Poker going into the stands!" "That's two, baby!" "That's two!" "The leading money winner on the World Poker Tour gets a big hug from Mrs Negreanu, his mom." "Gotta be so proud." "It's like just the perfect way to go out and end like an amazing year in 2004." "He won his WPT titles and he won Player of the Year and clearly established himself as one of, if not the best, tournament poker players in the world." "My mother was just amazed at how well" "Daniel's career progressed." "She was my brother's biggest supporter." "His biggest fan." "It's funny that my mother chooses, like when I get heads up, to go to the buffet." "My mother she prepares me every day." "She brings me a lunch." "She's really supportive." "She's out here for the month to make my life easier." "And all that other stuff that seems insignificant, is so much more important than people give it credit for." "Eventually, she was coming so often that I bought my mum a house, like five minutes down the road." "She was there for him." "Every morning, she had to make his lunch." "My brother was probably the only guy... playing who brought a brown bag of lunch to the poker table." "It's amazing because... he was doing well and there was an instance where" "Mummy gave Phil Ivey a lunch." "And, after that, he was doing well, too." "So it became a little joke, where like..." ""Mummy's got to make everybody lunch, cos if she does it, then we're all gonna do well."" "What did your mum make us for dinner?" "A little of everything." "I remember being 31 years old and she made me some soup, and I got the spoon and I'm putting it to my mouth, and she blows on it." "I'm like, "Mum, I'm 31!" "You gotta stop." She's like, "You're always gonna be my baby."" "Daniel adored his mother." "The relationship was like that." "There was so much respect there." "And she was always rooting for him." "It was just an amazing thing to watch." "There was one time, she's driving on the freeway and she looks up and she sees my brother's face on a big billboard." "And she called me." "She says, "Mike, Daniel's face is all over." "It's on the highway." I said, "I know, Mummy."" "We always knew it was going to be okay." "He made it happen." "I have six World Series Poker bracelets." "Two World Poker Tour titles." "Number one on the all-time money list." "I won the World Series Poker Player of the Year twice." "There's so many moments that I treasure, but the ones that I love the most are like when it's bottom of the ninth and you've just gotta do it." "In 2013, it looked like Matthew Ashton had the World Series Poker Player of the Year locked up." "In the Main Event, I came 25th and it wasn't quite enough to pass him." "I had one more shot." "So I jumped in late into the High Roller." "And I was in an interesting situation because I needed to come in eighth to win Player of the Year." "There was a money bubble at nine, so two guys were just folding." "I'm like, " You know?" "I just want to move up a couple of spots and win the Player of the Year, but, at the same time, there's a bracelet on the line." "Those two guys eventually went broke, so it just worked out like a Hollywood script." "We're down to eight." "Daniel, the extreme short stack." "Negreanu at risk." "Another eight!" "Yeah!" "They'll chop it." "Yes!" "Woo!" "Daniel survives." "Staying alive!" "Staying alive!" "And they're racing for Daniel's tournament life." "Ace or a king for all the cheese!" "I feel it coming." "I feel the mojo." "Ace or a king." "Negreanu at risk." "Ace in the flop!" "Mojo found!" "Daniel in party mode." "There may be no one worse to lose to than Daniel Negreanu." "You're pretty bad." "It's not a ten and not what the rest of the table wanted to see." "Five-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu with more than a million chips!" "What a run he's enjoying." "He was all in like five minutes ago for seven big blinds!" "Not resting on his newly won Player of the Year laurels," "Negreanu out for bracelet number six." "Negreanu spikes it." "Seiver pays the price." "Negreanu's charmed tournament run continues, as he knocks out Timothy Adams." "Gruissem comes up empty and will fall in third place." "See you at the bar in a bit." "Bracelet number six is coming into focus." "All in, snap call, just like that." "Negreanu a strong favourite to win this hand and bracelet number six." "Queen, nine, deuce." "No help to Villa-Lobos." "Turn card, king of diamonds, brings Daniel one card closer to victory." "Trey of clubs and Daniel Negreanu completes a remarkable comeback to win bracelet number six!" "Well, I said I was going to do it." "So I was the little itty-bitty short stack at the final table." "But I won it anyway." "I think if you had to identify Daniel's unique talent or what he is best at, it's clearly reading situations, reading people and eliciting information from them." "We know that Daniel's a chatterbox and loves to talk, and I believe he does that because he wants the table to be lively and he wants a good atmosphere at the table, but the by-product of that" "is he's able to gain information from people." "Okay, friendly game." "Lots of fun stuff happening on that board." "I learned many years ago I hate to fold, so I don't fold any more." "Feeling comfortable right now." "See?" "You can tell by my energy." "Relaxed." "What does that usually mean?" "What?" "Hey!" "Soon as I start yapping he goes in." "Man!" "Woo!" "Scare card." "Show one card." "I'll show you one after you fold." "How about if I gave you $1,000 out of my pocket?" "Even if you gave me a million, I wouldn't show you." "A million?" "!" "I love that bet." "That's beautiful!" "I don't know what you have but I just think that was a really good move." "Whatever next?" "You know, I tell myself jokes sometimes." "They're appropriate for TV." "That make me laugh." "I told you I have three threes and you just don't care?" "Well, if I talk too much, I might let you know what I have." "Don't ever talk to Daniel!" "He's always fishing for information." "Do not give it to him." "He's looking very GQ." "He's got the sweater, he's got the shirt." "The pants are pressed." "Have you got bronzer on, the whole deal?" "It's really hard to be bluffing." "You're special though." "That's what I've been told." "You live in Hollywood now?" "You live in Hollywood now?" "Why?" "You've learned a lot from those guys in Hollywood." "Yeah?" "Yeah, it was very good." "I was reading the whole thing, the whole move." "It was very good." "I was going to give you a standing ovation." "I think you had a good hand, Eugene." "I think you had a good hand." "That's a good reading." "Sick, right?" "Obviously, he's very smart with math, but he's a people person and he knows how to figure out what somebody has." "It's a tough, tough, tough decision." "I'm gonna need a minute." "Why would you raise me now?" "I guess you would, yeah." "Do you have fives?" "Whatever!" "Seven is my card today." "You don't have seven." "Don't believe it." "I fold, but did you have ace, king?" "You had like jacks or queens or something like that?" "Is that what you have?" "With a spade?" "Is that what you have?" "Jacks or queens with spade?" "I got it!" "He smiled!" "That's what he's got!" "I'm smiling because you are talking." "I love to talk." "I don't shut up." "Just keep bluh, bluh, bluh." "Diarrhoea of the mouth." "Can't help myself." "Call, because you're Negreanu." "This is fun." "I love having fun playing poker." "He basically takes his emotion out of it and plays almost robotic." "Obviously, he's talkative, but I'm sure while he's talking" "50,000 questions are going off in his brain, as he's trying to figure stuff out." "And he's very, very good at that." "And he does not stereotype." "He always gives people the benefit of the doubt, until they prove him wrong." "What Daniel does is pretty simple." "He says you get into someone's head, understand how they approach the game and you play their tendencies." "It's just hard to master." "Traudt check raises all in!" "I had you on the flop and you got me on the turn." "He's right again." "I had you, but then that card changed your leader." "I'm pretty sure, right?" "You had like some kind of a nine in your hand, right?" "King, nine?" "King, nine." "Take it." "Daniel folds!" "You're a sick human." "King, nine?" "King, nine." "I did it again!" "Yes!" "I think the most valuable aspect of being a great poker player is self-awareness, understanding how people perceive you." "Cos once you know how they perceive you, you'll know how they're going to react to it." "When you're playing poker, you have an idea of how this person thinks, what kinds of cards they play, are they tight or loose, so you can pinpoint them more." "But at the core, how do you figure out those things?" "What kind of person is this?" "And that comes from understanding how they think and now they view the world." "And that's shaped by their upbringing." "Where they're from, what they've done for a living, how long they've been in poker." "My brother, when he was younger, wanted to become an actor." "And he was able to sing and act, and portray the character perfectly." "And acting was his first love and I think that's where he gets it now, where he can change himself and become that person or that character." "I love nothing more than being under the lights on centre stage playing the final tables." "Because, innately, I already feel like, "Okay, this is my comfort zone."" "Daniel Negreanu!" "He's able to like take different situations and make the best of it and become that person or think how that person thinks." "And then he uses it against them." "Even if I was a little nervous, they're way more nervous than I am." "Because this is something I've been doing for so many years." "Been there, done that." "So I use that to my advantage, if anything." "I try to make them even more uncomfortable, put them under even more pressure." "Tough one?" "Close." "Talked him into it." "He could sell ice to an Eskimo." "I can sense when people are afraid, when they're happy." "I can sense when people are intimidated or when they're trying to push me around." "There's no tangible way to explain it, other than, you know, I feel it." "Raise." "Daniel's worked out he doesn't have the best hand but he does think he can get Shlomi to fold, hence the bluff raise." "I figure you've got aces or kings." "Can I say that or is that illegal?" "I can say what he has but not what I have?" "Okay." "I'm thinking aces or kings." "You think right." "Daniel really pulled the trigger correctly on that one." "And Shlomi's now thinking, "If you've read me for aces or kings, surely you can beat aces or kings." "I have to fold."" "If I show one, do I have to show all?" "No." "Okay." "I can show one?" "I can show one if I want to?" "I don't feel like it." "Never mind." "I don't have a good one to show." "Great start for Daniel." "Almost a double float there and then a bluff on the river, which got the job done." "Negreanu wasted no time pulling out the tricks from his play book." "Ace or kings looked good?" "Of course." "I'm just saying that's what I thought he had, but not that I could beat it." "If his understanding of the game is peerless, you don't get to be the World Series Player of the Year and so high up on the Global Poker Index without being astonishingly talented." "I've got about eight years when I've won a million plus, so I'm proud of the fact that I've been able to put up winning years every year, despite the game evolving and changing." "I'm always able to stay one step ahead." "That's the great thing about poker is that every time you sit down you can get better." "You can always play a hand a little bit better or a bit differently and make a situation better and you just have to work at it." "Online poker's changed the game immensely." "All of a sudden, a lot of players got really, really good." "When I first came into the game, if you didn't know somebody, you could assume they were not right, because if you didn't know them, that means they hadn't been playing." "Now, you'll sit with a kid who looks like he's barely old enough to be there and, meanwhile, he's got 20 million hands of experience in the last six months." "You know?" "And he's really, really good." "So the anonymity factors in and it's a different playing field now, where the average player is just much better." "They're playing a lot more close to what's optimum." "I think the reason why Daniel maintained that level of success and actually even gotten better is because he's willing to adapt to all of these young guns coming in and all of these different, new theories in poker." "He appreciates that, you know, just because you're good five years ago, doesn't mean you're gonna be good now, and you really have to keep up to date with everything." "Part of what I like to do when I play is use my people skills." "That's not really an option online, but what I found fun was just sort of like focusing on the fundamentals and the math and the stats, and the numbers, cos I've always been a numbers geek." "So definitely took some adjusting, understanding a little better." "Like, "I can't get away with doing all my sloppy stuff, because I can't get a read later in the hand where I can, you know, use that to my advantage."" "I decided to relearn a lot of the stuff that these kids are learning and adjust." "And also just realising," ""What areas do I need to improve on?" And being honest with myself." "There was a time when I went back to playing on Poker Stars for quite a while, where I was grinding in the big cash games... 100, 200." "People were like, "He'll never succeed!" Whatever." "It wasn't about them." "It was about me testing myself and pushing myself." "I've been playing this game a long time and I do feel like I've reached my peak." "Cos I've combined all the sort of moves with some wisdom and patience and discipline." "I see some kids doing things and I'm like..." ""I might have done that 15 years ago, but I know better now."" "He grew up and now he's... more wise." "He's confident." "Although he does have his faults." "He's a little arrogant." "He always has to be right." "I remember one time, we were playing in the same game." "And I got beat by a straight flush." "Daniel said I should have bet on the turn." "And I said, "I did bet on the turn."" "And he said, "No, you didn't."" "I said, "Yes, I did." "I played the hand." "I bet on the turn."" "I know what was going through my mind during the hand." "He says, "I'll bet you $20,000 that you didn't bet on the turn."" "I said, "Alright, Daniel, we'll bet this."" "And Phil Ivey was also in the game, so we called Phil and asked him about this hand, and Phil said, "Yes, she bet on the turn."" "So it was like sweet!" "Finally, you know, I won an argument." "I don't think we ever settled on that bet, by the way." "I might have to call him up." "He went through a phase where his kind of ego ran riot." "I do like Floyd." "This move." "Check, check, check." "He's comparing himself to Floyd Mayweather now." "He was always a presence cos he's always very loud." "Spade, spade!" "I win!" "Sweet!" "There's no way you can win now." "He's a huge personality." "You will know if you're at a table with him." "You'll probably know if you're in the same room as him." "Cards good, flop good." "Jesus!" "He's very one for the rules." "I remember, we were playing in a limit hold'em event." "It must have been about 2000, I think." "There were about 17 of us left." "The WSOP had just introduced this new rule which meant that your bum had to be in your seat when the last card was dealt." "And I remember, I was playing at the same table as Daniel, and my legs were tired, so I stood up at my seat, and I was stretching." "Literally, all I was doing was stretching." "I hadn't gone anywhere." "I was stretching." "And the dealer dealt the last card and I saw Daniel nod to the dealer." "Like going, you know, because my bum wasn't in my seat right." "And suddenly the dealer mucked my hand in the big blind and I just freaked out." "I said, "What are you doing?" "This is just stupid." "You've got to use some common sense here." "It's mad."" "At the time, I thought, "What a tosser!"" "I thought, "God, you snake!" But then I realised, actually, he was right." "He was just playing by the rules and it was a stupid rule." "Well, my big mouth gets me in trouble on a regular basis and I'm okay with that." "He's kind of controversial in some ways, Daniel." "He often gets himself into situations." "He's not universally liked." "I stay away from controversy, but Daniel was so vocal about how he felt about certain players and their behaviours, myself included." "In a way, I kind of respected him for that, except when it was aimed at me." "So there was definitely a couple of incidences where you know, we didn't see eye to eye." "One was where he was judgmental of my personal behaviour that had absolutely nothing to do with him." "And, you know, I didn't believe, and I still don't believe, that he had any right to voice his opinion in front of other people about something that was personal in my life." "Sometimes I say things where I do cross the line." "I'm like, "Okay." "Yeah, "" "But you'll do that when you ride the line as often as I do." "Sometimes you're gonna fall over on the one side or the other." "In terms of like, even the way I word certain things." "After I send a Tweet, I'm like," ""Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have said that like that."" "Daniel obviously feels that he wants to put everything out there." "And I disagree with him about a lot of things." "But he obviously, genuinely, holds those opinions." "And he has solid reasoning for holding those opinions." "He's willing to discuss." "He's willing to engage." "He's willing to debate." "If you have a belief, I don't mind hearing it." "I can have a civil discussion about it." "It doesn't mean I hate you." "I can respect others with differing views." "I've just always been somebody that's believed wholehearted that integrity is the most important aspect of being a man." "And part of that, for me, is being honest about my true feelings about things." "If you buy into a tournament like, whatever, in a re-buy tournament two hours late, for example, according to this rule, you should only lose three rounds of blinds." "I've showed up two hours late in the last re-buy tournament and I only had 1,125 of my 2,000." "So how can you selectively enforce a rule, not only from tournament to tournament, but in this specific tournament?" "Because I should have started with more chips too." "I'm not complaining." "I'm fine with what I started with." "But if you're gonna start everyone else with more chips, bro, come on!" "How can you selectively enforce this rule?" "It makes no sense." "He did used to be this tribune of the people type of character, which I think some people found quite irritating, cos, if you're a tribune of the people, you have to be an elected tribune of the people." "But I think he was all for fairness and he's usually right." "That's the thing." "Justifiably, he was furious about, you know, the Full Tilt scandal." "He might have gone a little bit too far in some cases with the righteous indignation card." "I think there was one instance where he was suggesting somebody's legs got broken." "I think that might have been going a little bit too far." "I think he would probably admit that himself maybe." "I've come to realise that those comments are pretty harsh." "And I've had some time to think about what I'd said." "Yeah, I think they're absolutely appropriate." "I do, Howard." "If you're listening and watching us, I do." "I don't think I would have any problem with somebody who had $15,000 of their hard-earned money on your site come up to you and bash you in the nuts with a baseball bat." "Howard, Ray and Chris, you asked the poker world to... you know, accept your brand and come play at your site." "Come play and chat with the pros." "Come chat with the pros." "There's a lot of people that would like to chat with you right now." "But all of a sudden... zip." "I waited a long time." "I really didn't say anything for months, hoping that you guys could rectify the situation, but you are scumbags!" "Absolute, flat-out scumbags for ignoring the poker world that you fleeced for as much money as you did and now you have nothing to say?" "Nothing to say?" "!" "Are you freaking serious?" "There's not a lawyer in the world that can force you to keep as quiet as you have." "And it's shameful, disgusting and you deserve a smack in the face for what you've done." "You have no respect for our community." "You should be shunned and ostracised from our community forever for the lack of respect you've shown us by not giving us a single statement." "Something to the effect of, " I'm so sorry about what happened." "I'll do everything in my power to rectify the situation." Nothing." "Instead, you hide out like a shameful little weasel." "Shameful little weasel that you are." "All three of you disgust me." "Bluuh!" "If everybody spoke up the same way that he does, then it would be different." "You know, at the time, he was right about what he was saying about certain people." "Erm, but maybe stretched it a little bit, I don't know." "I have to be true to myself and part of that means" "I have an opinion and I'm gonna share it." "I realise, wholeheartedly, that when I take stand on something, it's gonna piss some people off and other people may applaud me for it." "That's just gonna happen when you're as outspoken as I am." "But I'd rather be that kind of person than someone who has no opinion at all." "I didn't want to be involved in the politics of poker." "Daniel is much different." "He voices his opinion." "He knows everything that's going on in poker." "I've been at odds with the Tournament Directors Association, in terms of the way that they're implementing new rule changes and giving themselves some self-appointed power, if you will." "And really kind of blurring the lines of their role." "A rule that makes your job easier doesn't, necessarily, make it a better rule." "A rule the players appreciate, that the players want, the players prefer, is the rule that should trump the idea that it might make your job just a little bit easier." "I see that the role of the tournament director... as customer service because it's the players that are paying the entry fees to play in the tournaments that pay your salary." "So it's not a prison guard, prisoner mentality." "And I saw a shift, where a lot of rules that were being implemented that were not recreational player friendly." "So I spoke out, you know, and a lot of the time they don't like that." "And I appreciate what they do." "But if I don't agree with something, I'm gonna say it, regardless of the backlash that it may create, even if I'm the only one saying it." "Dan's very opinionated." "That's what we love about him." "I mean, he's gonna give you his opinion Whether you like it or not." "And I wish more people were like that." "At least with Daniel, you always know where you stand." "If he doesn't like you, he'll tell you he doesn't like you." "There's nothing phoney about him." "And... that's just the way it is." "Sometimes he gets people's backs up." "But he always presents a strong argument." "And he's also not petty." "And I have, occasionally, seen him even change his position when listening to the opinions of others." "But, yes, it does sometimes make him a target for people, who sometimes feel that it's not his place." "But he's an individual and that's who he is." "It's very much part of his personality and, actually, I don't think he would be who he is now had he played it safe." "Had he stayed mute on so many things over the years." "I often stick my nose where it doesn't belong." "I often have an opinion that is strong and righteous, if you will, and I'm wrong..." "You know." "I don't know." "I can't remember." "But I'm sure I have been wrong once or twice." "And I just hope that you all understand that" "I appreciate this award so much because it's a validation of me sticking for what I believe is truly best for this poker community." "Recently, I've seen a different side to him." "He's listening and thinking about others." "My brother changed after my mother's passing." "It made him... look at... the world a little different." "Where, you know what?" "That support has gone." "You know, Daniel's mother was fine." "And then, she wasn't." "It was like that." "My mother suffered from heart issues." "One day, she had a minor stroke." "She had to be hospitalised for it." "I had to bring my mother back home to Toronto." "And she recovered, but the doctors explained to us that... they need to go back in cos, if they don't, she may have a bigger stroke." "He warned us it would be a high-risk surgery and I didn't really hear that." "I'm like, "Okay, I'm sure it will be fine." "Surgery, doctors, they know what they're doing."" "Well, it wasn't good because that was the last I ever spoke to my mother, or the last she could ever speak to me because during the, erm, surgery, when they were trying to get the blood clots out," "she had a massive stroke, where she was fully paralysed on her left side." "Never spoke another word." "Was in a coma for quite a while." "And..." "So for seven, eight months, she led a "life" where she was bed-ridden and couldn't speak, couldn't drink water, couldn't eat food." "Just absolutely miserable, like." "My brother was at the hospital every day." "I was living in Vegas and I would go visit." "There was one day I remember." "I told her, "I have a surprise for you."" "But she couldn't speak, but... through eye contact we knew what was going on." "We could always communicate just by the way we looked at each other." ""I have a surprise for you."" "She looked at me and she's like..." "I said, "Daniel's here." And Daniel walked in." "And she's like this." "Her eyes lit up." "So even at that point in time, having Daniel there just brightened up her world." "It was amazing." "It was hard for him to see his mother in that condition." "It took a lot out of my brother, because the demands put on him." "At that time, his career was rising." "He always had to keep up with appearances." "It took a big toll, even with his performance at the table." "Like, you could see things weren't right." "And..." "I don't think..." "he was able to deal with it." "I let him know that it's okay." "I got your back." "We'll deal with this together." "And my mum hung in there for a long time." "And, ultimately, the doctors said," ""She's getting better." "It looks like she might get out next week, and we'll put her in some rehab."" "And then my brother, he has an annual football game that he goes to." "So, that weekend, he went to the football game." "Cos he'd been to the hospital every single day." "I flew in to Toronto." "I was going to see my mother the next morning." "That's the night she died." "It's amazing." "Like, as soon as my brother was gone and I wasn't there," "I felt like she finally felt the peace where she's like," ""I don't have to hang on any more."" "After the funeral..." "I drove my brother to the airport." "And, he went back to Vegas." "Back home." "While he's walking away," "I looked at him and I said to myself..." ""He's on his own."" "But I knew Vegas was his home." "He'd established himself there and... he had a lot of friends and a lot of support." "I knew he was gonna be okay." "Vegas is his home." "It wasn't till, you know, a few weeks later, when something funny happened and I wanted to tell my mum, and realised that I couldn't, cos she's not there any more." "That's when it all kind of hit me." "It did change him a little bit." "He became a little bit more focused on the things he wanted and went after them a little bit more." "Became a little bit more ambitious and... a little bit more caring and loving, because he did realise that, you know, you do die and life is short." "The way we are, the way we behave and act, the way we treat others." "You know, the legacy lives on." "Seeing my brother, I see my father, as he's a spitting image of him, so... just getting down or whatever," "I would call him, he'd always have a funny story or act out and make me laugh and remember the good times." "The only regret I have or sadness, outside of a perfect childhood, is the fact that my parents weren't around longer." "In my household, growing up, it was always boisterous, it was always fun, fun-loving, always music being played." "Dancing and singing." "Food and drink." "And I think maybe we've become like our parents a little bit." "I'd already started down a path of self-discovery and introspection when my agent, Brian, did this course on emotional intelligence, here in Vegas, called ChoiceCenter, and he said, "Dude, you gotta try it."" "I went there." "The first couple of days I'm like," ""This seems silly," you know?" "It's not really for me, but, ultimately, I learned a lot about what's held me back from being the best version of myself." "I had sort of an experience with a girl who I was absolutely in love with." "The signs were there, right?" "I knew there were things going on." "And I knew all this stuff, but I chose to stay in that." "And I hadn't realised how much that affected me, that failed relationship with the girl, in all areas of my life." "It didn't just hurt my confidence there, but it hurt my confidence at the poker table." "So when I read on the internet people saying," ""He's over the hill." "All these young kids are better than him,"" "I started to believe it." ""Yeah, maybe they're right." "Maybe I can't compete any more."" "So, through the course, I tapped into that confidence again." "Like, "Wait a minute, I've done it before." "I can totally do it again."" "I told my story of a broken heart, right?" "So I told it, as me being the victim." "And then I retold the story again, where I'm 100% responsible." "It was one of the most freeing experiences I've ever had." "Cos I realised, I chose all that." "So it gave me the power back." "I had a coach and I had a plan of how I was going to do it." "Part of it was watching video." "I would watch the high roller events." "I would talk poker with friends." "I would practise poker." "I was re-studying the game." "The biggest thing I've been able to shift is when I'm in a bad place, cos I'm still there." "I still get pissed off, I still get angry and annoyed." "I still get arrogant, I still get condescending to people." "What I'm able to do is recognise it much quicker and then I can shift out of it." "So, instead of being in that place for a week or two weeks, and being like, "Poor me, look at me." No, no, no." ""How am I responsible for creating this situation?" "How am I being in this moment?" "How do I want to be?" "How am I going to shift into that?" I do that much quicker than in the past." "If I make a mistake or I do something wrong, I'll acknowledge it, right?" "And then commit to what I'm going to do differently about it." "I look back on all the things I've created in my life and I believe that I'm 100% responsible for all of it, in the sense of, like, the good and the bad." "Cos I'm responsible for all the decisions I make." "Sure, you could use the fact I was born into good parents and I didn't choose that." "I was lucky, absolutely, and I don't take that for granted, but from that point, erm, I believe that people are right where they are at based on decisions that they've made in their life, both good and bad." "He's a much more relaxed and much calmer person." "So he's moving slowly towards humility, like we all try to do." "Daniel and I, we were always cordial but it was never a friendship." "And I can say that in the last couple of years that has completely shifted." "I think that we've both grown up a lot and, you know, now I consider Daniel a true friend." "He's a really solid human." "He has a big heart." "I think he's able to talk to people." "And listen." "As opposed to always wanting to be heard." "He's able to listen now." "And..." "I find our relationship strengthened." "Cos now he's attentive." "I see him focused and driven." "Wanting to succeed again." "I'm a big believer in the idea that everything starts with a thought, right?" "A belief that you can or can't do something." "Call it clear intention, if you will." "So I'm very, very clear on, "What is it that I want to achieve?"" "And if I believe that I can, I'm going to put in the work." "So this is my vision board or vision wall, if you will." "Essentially, the idea behind this is you put things out there that you want to achieve." "And it's a constant reminder daily." "I have a personality type that's very goal driven." "I'm self-motivated." "I put more pressure on myself than anyone else can." "In fact, sometimes when people doubt me, it fuels me." "When I hear people saying I'm done, I can't do this or that," "I'm like, "Really?" "Man, do I want to shove this in your face!"" "That's what drives me." "In poker, each year I try to come up with new ways to motivate myself." "Right now, the one area I feel like I'm falling behind or I need to address is the number of bracelets I've got." "I've got six." "And I feel like I should have nine or ten right now." "So the next few years, I'm going to push really hard towards, you know, getting back into the race for the all-time lead in bracelets." "Also I've been close to winning an EPT title twice." "The Grand Final, which is, you know, the crown jewel, is one where I came fourth in." "And I had a fourth before that." "EPTs are considered very prestigious." "There's a lot of tough competition." "So having that on my resume is something that does matter to me." "I think my brother just wants to succeed at what he loves to do, whether it be soccer, playing sports... and poker." "It's not about the money." "It's about that bracelet." "That Holy Grail, getting to the next level." "And... my brother's determined." "No matter what, he will get what he wants." "I've got a broader scope of what I want to create in my life." "I am focusing on what ways I can do the more mainstream stuff and do other things outside of poker." "I'm always going to be a poker player and care about that, but I have a lot of goals that are in different verticals." "I'm very, very excited about hockey possibly coming to Las Vegas and being a part of the ownership group." "I'm hoping to be a minority owner as well." "I mean, as a kid, growing up in Toronto, the idea of owning a piece of an NHL team." "Even if it's not gonna make me a bunch of money, it's more of a dream come true." "It's really about expanding." "Using the platform that I've been given to make a difference in the world, in various ways." "One of the events that I'm working on now is one with St Jude's Children's Hospital." "And I'm really inspired by what the Germans are doing, raising for effective giving, which is, essentially, asking the poker world to make a difference." "A lot of people are conflicted." "If you play poker for a living, what do you contribute to society?" "You take money from other people." "What are you gonna do to live a balanced life and make sure you're contributing?" "And one of the ways you can do that is by giving effectively." "Growing up, he always wanted to hustle, hustle, hustle and get to the next level." "Now, I think he's able to reflect, look back, and start to give to his community." "And now, I know just recently, he went to California, to talk to people in government and help get poker back in the United States." "So I think he's become a poker ambassador." "He's the voice of poker." "When you think of poker, most people think of Daniel Negreanu." "Somebody that I look up to." "Basically, if he says something, you know, that's what he believes." "That's something that, you know, I try to do in my own life." "I don't think you can actually measure the contribution that Daniel's made to the game." "He's had a massive influence." "I'm sure he would have been responsible for a lot of people learning the game." "He's written columns." "He's done interviews." "He teaches strategy." "He's always there to help people." "I see a lot of people go to him for advice and he's never turned anybody down when they needed him." "It's actually amazing to see how many people who actually don't even play poker or necessarily like poker, but Daniel's transcended that." "He's fun to watch." "When he's on TV, you want to watch him, cos he takes you through the process of the hand, he calls it out right, most of the time, and that's what people want to watch." "Most people look up to Daniel in one way or another, for his ability as a poker player but also his ability to market the game." "At the American Poker Wars, the first-ever ceremony, he was named poker ambassador, and he had no competition because, throughout the years, he has completely understood his role, understood the need to bring people into poker," "to make it appealing and really publicise what great fun it is and what a great experience it is for everyone." "And he's excellent at it." "Being an ambassador is a role I fell into that I feel very comfortable in for the game." "And..." "It's just I'm compelled to do it." "I don't feel as though it's an obligation at all." "It just feels like I love this game." "I want to see it grow and I want to see people enjoy it and have fun with it, like they always have." "And if I can contribute to that, I'm going to." "I can't think of too many people who've done more for the game of poker today." "No one deserved it more than Daniel getting in the Poker Hall of Fame." "Period." "Well, to be inducted at 40 years old, first-time balloter, alongside Chip Reese, who I admired as a player and as a person, is certainly an honour." "Hey, my man." "It's recognition from your peers." "From the living members of the Hall of Fame, who are saying that, you know, you're part of the club now." "Most of the youngsters, they don't meet the criteria." "But Daniel, he crushes it." "Daniel deserves to be in the Hall of Fame." "He's earned a spot." "He's been an amazing ambassador." "But he's made it because of the player that he is." "I'd like to welcome Daniel into the 2014 Poker Hall of Fame." "I just wanted to start by saying, this is an absolute honour and thanks for being here." "Did anyone buy that, right, that that's all I had to say?" "No, I've got a lot to say." "When I started playing poker as a teenager," "I remember watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN and seeing guys like Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan battling it out and thought, you know, "I just want to be a part of that."" "I decided I wanted to make my mother proud of what I do, because, when I started in the late '90s, being a professional poker player wasn't something to be proud of." "After all, what do we contribute to society?" "What do we give back?" "I've been in the game for over, I don't know, about 20 years now, and I plan to be in this game another 40 years." "I want to be part of the conversation, a big part of the conversation, changing the definition of what a poker player is and what we do." "Thinking of my parents, who, if they were here today," "I know would be proud." "My mother would have cooked all the food." "Cos that's what she does, and my dad would make sure all your glasses were full, cos that's just the kind of people they were." "I had parents who just loved me unconditionally." "And I'm super thankful and grateful for that." "For me, it was never about the money." "My first trip to Las Vegas was here, actually in Binion's Horseshoe, downstairs." "I brought a $3,000 bankroll." "And about 24 hours later," "I had a lot of free time on my hands." "I was like watching the room going, "Okay."" "So I learned my lesson." "But really the reason I got into poker was cos it was a passion for me." "I believe that whatever it is you choose to do in your life, being passionate is a prerequisite." "Wanting it for fame and fortune will not get you there." "Unless you have a passion for it and it's something you truly love, the craft, then you're very unlikely to be successful." "Integrity is a word that really means a lot to me." "I know probably in the last 15, 20 years, I've pissed off a lot of people." "Some of you are in this room, right?" "But I'm going to have an opinion." "If I stand alone..." "I have stood alone many times on controversial issues." "But I'm always telling you exactly what I feel and like what I really truly believe." "It reminds me of an Aristotle quote, actually." "I've never really been afraid of controversy and this one quote sums it up." "It says "to avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing and be nothing"." "And that's not the way I live my life." "In this 20-year journey, one of my goals was to make my mother proud." "And I hope that in doing so..." "I've inspired others to dream bigger, live a bigger life and also show the world that just because we play poker for a living doesn't mean that we can't contribute to society." "So I want to thank everyone here, all the living members who voted me in." "I'm honoured, I'm thankful and, erm..." "That's all I got." "We always knew that the potential was just no ceiling, up to the sky." "The field that he's in has a lot to do with your character and who you are." "It's not only about reading cards and math and stats, which he's also really good at, but it's your personality." "If your tombstone says "great poker player", that seems like an unfulfilled life." "I'd rather be seen as someone who was inspiring to others." "Someone who gave back, a good friend, a good brother." "A good son." "I think both my parents are looking down on us and saying, "You know what?" "He did what he said he was going to do."" "Having my parents support him, his endeavours, I think, means the world to my brother." "Everything about the way that I see the world I owe them, because they taught me that anything is possible." "They taught me that, you know, that giving is important." "You know, they taught me that motivation and drive and having fun, and being hospitable, like that's really the core, the things that I still, to this day, view as important." "And it comes from them."