(Featured image: courtesy of WPT)
Daniel Negreanu is from Toronto, Canada, and is a widely recognized name in the poker world. Even very complete newbie pokerists know of him. (Arguably he was the one who made poker popular as it is now.)
He is a former member of the Team PokerStars and used to play exclusively on this poker room (online) under the nickname “Kid Poker”. He also teaches poker on Masterclass.com.
In 1998 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Dan became the first youngest bracelet winner (hence why he got the name ‘Kid Poker’), and held that title for 5 years until Scott Fischman came along.
Negreanu is a proud owner of 6 WSOP bracelets and 2 World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. Later on in this article, we’ll talk about his biggest all time and 2021 tournament wins.
Currently, he lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.
| Full Name: Daniel Negreanu | |
| DOB: July 26, 1974 | |
| Birth Place: Toronto, Canada | |
| Profession: Poker player, GG Poker ambassador, Masterclass.com poker instructor, TV personality | |
| Wife: Amanda Leatherman | |
| WSOP Bracelets: 6 | |
| Net Worth & Career Earnings: $70+ million |
Disclaimer: This is a question that no one can answer with 100% certainty except for Daniel himself. We can only assume his approximate net worth based on various sources that we’ve read/heard about, the usual stakes he plays, and the tournament results.
Table of Contents
Daniel Negreanu Bio and Poker Career
In 1967, Anna and Constantin Negreanu moved to the capital of Canada, Toronto, from Romania. 7 years later, on July 26, 1974, Daniel, the future poker legend, was born.
Daniel wasn’t immediately into poker; as a teenager, he was fond of playing pool and even dreamed of becoming a professional snooker. But at the age of 15 he learned to play poker, which drastically changed his future life.
He began to visit illegal games that were held in not the most safest areas of Toronto (by the way, I personally go to underground clubs in T-dot and know people who know Dan in person).
Fun fact: He produced and starred in movies like X-Men, Detention, The Grand, just to name a few. (Here’s the full list of movies Daniel Negreanu is in).
How awesome is that?
ALL-IN with Poker
Anyway, in order to learn and play poker, Daniel decided to drop out of school. Clearly he decided to go “all-in” (see what I did there?) and it paid off later on in his life.
Negreanu became a grinder and once he accumulated a small capital, he went on his first trip to Las Vegas, where he loses everything to the last penny. Frustrated but not discouraged, he returns to Canada with the intention to build up a new bankroll and return to Las Vegas again.
And he did that.
At the age of 21, Daniel again goes to conquer the capital of gambling, and the second time around everything was much more successful.
His first major success was that he won 2 tournaments at the World Poker Final in one of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas, Foxwood. At the same time, he was named the best player of the tournament, earning $133,600.
Winning prestigious tournaments and winning big encouraged Daniel to move on, and just a year later, on April 29, 1998, he wins his first WSOP gold bracelet, placing first in a $2,000 Pot-Limit Texas Hold’em event. In that tourney, he earned $169,460 USD.
This victory made him the youngest (at the time) World Series of Poker bracelet winner and earned the nickname “Kid Poker”. (It is by this nickname that he is now known in online poker at PokerStars.)
Later, Negreanu won five more bracelets: in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2013 (Asia-Pacific and Europe). In addition, in 2004 he was recognized as the best poker player of the year by “Card Player” magazine.
In total, Negreanu has 6 bracelets, and by this indicator he is significantly inferior to the leader Phil Hellmuth, who has 15 of those.
Daniel also regularly appeared on various TV shows (playing with poker stars like Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Eli Elezra, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, Antonio Esfandiari and many others). He also moonlighted as a commentator and host of poker events.
In 2007, Negreanu became a member of Team PokerStars (Vanessa Rousso, Igor Kurganov, and Liv Boeree were also PS ambassadors around the same time).
After 12 years, on May 2019 he announced that he left PokerStars in “amicable split”. Right now, he’s an ambassador for GG Poker gaming platform.
In 2021, Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu had a “grudge match”, where Doug came out a winner with $1.2 Million.
In October 2022, The Kid Poker finally beat his 2 year cold streak, and won his second biggest prize during the PokerGo’s $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl.
It’s worth noting that he played solid the entire tourney, got extremely lucky in one hand against Bryn Kenney with quad 3s and he kept this momentum going until the heads up with Nick Petrangelo. He ended up winning the title and took home $3.3 million.
Daniel Negreanu Masterclass (Course)
There’s no doubt that Negreanu is one of the most successful figures in poker history.
A few years ago, he also became an expert instructor teaching poker at Masterclass.com.
I don’t have a separate review on it yet, but having had a look at it, it’s definitely worth watching, especially if you’re a complete beginner.
(Believe it or not, but as a poker player you MUST constantly learn and grow. By the way, Phil Ivey also has a course available on Masterclass.com. Check out our review here.)
Now, how to play like Daniel Negreanu and actually make money? Well, you can start with his Masterclass course.
==> Check out the FULL review here.
Personal Life
While lucky at the poker table, Kid Poker doesn’t necessarily have the best resume when it comes to dating life.
First, he had an on and off relationship with another Canadian poker player, Evelyn Ng. During that time, Dan was also her poker mentor and significantly helped improve Evelyn’s poker game.
In 2005, one of the main events takes place in Daniel’s life, he marries Lori Lynn Weber. However, they divorced shortly after, and in his words “it was an amicable divorce”.
Between his first wife and his second wife, Dan had some relationships that didn’t last long.
However, with one Negreanu did tie a knot with, Amanda Leatherman, who was a host for a popular PokerStars TV show “Big Game” (where popular players like Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein, Bill Perkins, David Williams etc were featured).
Daniel Negreanu and Amanda Leatherman got married in 2019.
Daniel Negreanu Net Worth
How rich is Daniel Negreanu? How much is he worth?
Clearly, Daniel has poker as his main source of wealth.
Specifically, he made or still makes money from the following income streams:
- tournament wins (prizes)
- online and live cash games
- sponsorship deal with PokerStars (ended in 2019)
- current brand sponsorship deal with GGPoker
- his YouTube channel earnings
- royalties from cameo appearances in movies and TV shows
- income from his Masterclass course
As of today, Daniel cashed more than 400 times and has close to $50 million in career tournament winnings.
Add to that live cash game earnings, and it is estimated that he has over $70 million net worth. (Possibly around $80 million net worth as of this year.)
Negreanu’s Biggest Tournament Winnings
What are Daniel’s top 5 all time cashes/tournament earnings? Let’s have a look:
- $8,288,001 in July 2014 (2nd place at $1 Million No-Limit Hold’em Big One for One Drop WSOP event)
- $3,312,000 in October 2022 (1st place at Super High Roller Bowl – $300,000 No-Limit Hold’em)
- $3,000,000 in May 2018 (2nd place in $300,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller Bowl event)
- $1,770,218 in December 2014 (1st place in No-Limit Hold’em Five Diamond World Poker Classic event)
- $1,725,838 in July 2019 (2nd place at WSOP $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em)
Daniel’s Tournament Wins in 2021 and 2022
His latest big wins are in World Series of Poker and PokerGO Cup events in 2021 and 2022. Specifically:
- $3,312,000 in October 2022 ((1st place in $300,000 NLH PokerGO Super High Roller Bowl)
- $700,000 in July 2021 (1st place in $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em PokerGO Cup Event #7)
- $661,041 in November 2021 (3rd place in $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em WSOP event)
- $519,764 in November 2021 (3rd place in $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha WSOP event)
Anything else to add to this? What are other facts about Daniel Negreanu you can share? Let us know in the comments below!