How Daniel Negreanu Deals With Poker Success

by Charles Memminger

As a future World Series of Poker champion, I want to make sure I will be able to handle success. I mean, handling failure? No problem. I've had lots of practice at that. But handling success, apparently that's a lot harder. At least it seems that way. Look at Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears or nearly the entire cast of "Lost." Or every other professional basketball or football player. And let's not forget hedgefund managers and homicidal movie stars. They all get to the top of their games and then, bam!, they're done in by booze, drugs, sex, greed, envy and the FOX News channel.

And, since we're talking poker here, let's also not forget Stuey Unger, three-time World Series of Poker winner, considered one of the best poker players in the history of poker who snorted so much coke his head practically collapsed during an ESPN broadcast and seemingly was the worst sports bettor on the planet. He died alone in a hotel room with $800 in cash. Man, that's no way for a WSOP champ to go out.

So, I wanted to make sure that when I win the WSOP or make my first several million dollars playing poker, I know how to cope with success. To that end, I tracked down Daniel Negreanu, the most successful money winner on the professional tour. Daniel's won gold bracelets, mountains of cash and moves in the highest echelons of the high-stakes poker world. By any measure, he's a success. And he handles his success with good humor and grace.

Daniel writes a syndicated column on poker that runs in newspapers all over the country, including the one I write for, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Why a multi-millionaire poker champ wants to write a newspaper column, I don't know. I've worked up to being a newspaper humor columnist. I think Daniel's kind of worked down to it. But I hoped he would be willing to talk to a fellow columnist and, luckily his syndicate, Card Shark Media, put me onto his trail. I first contacted him by e-mail when he was in Copenhagen, where was competing in the European Poker Tour championship. One of Daniel's sponsors is the online poker site Poker Stars. Ironically, he was knocked out of EPT tourney by a fellow Poker Stars player. How weird is that? Don't they have a secret handshake or something?

He didn't have time to talk in Copenhagen so I next caught up with him by e-mail in Australia, where he was involved in some secret movie project with Phil Helmuth. He couldn't talk then, either. I hoped he would swing by Hawaii on his way home, considering this is where he honeymooned with the future ex-wife in 2005. But he ended up flying directly home to Las Vegas where we finally talked by phone.

We discussed many things but mainly how to cope with success. If you, like me, plan to be a future WSOP champion, the following tips from Daniel will come in handy:

1. Believe you are going to be successful.

"The cool thing to say would be, no, I never thought I'd be this successful. But the truth is I always felt like I was going to be. You have to have that mentality."

2. Get a life.

"I think that one of the keys is to have a social life outside of poker. I know many Stu Ungers. I have some of those traits myself. Stuey was always looking for a bigger rush. No matter how much he had, the fear was that there would be no grind left, no purpose. His purpose was to build up a bankroll. It's self destructive behavior, mostly subconscious."

Daniel plays golf almost every day, which gives him time away from the poker tables. Not time away from gambling, though.

"There is SICK gambling on golf," he said.

3. Don't be intimidated by other players, think of them as "random donkeys."

"That's what I'm doing in high stakes poker," Daniel said. "Taking their money. Most of them suck. I make a lot of money. Mike Matusow, Victor Ramdim, Jamie Gold … half the field are donkeys."

4. Don't ever think of chips as real money.

"If you think like that you are already completely dead. You aren't playing your game properly. You can't think, 'I'm betting a car.' You have to make the right play."

5. Be nice to your mother. Remind her that you're rich.

"My mother, still to this day, watches how much she spends. She wanted to take her dog to the spa the other day. She asked, how much do you think it will cost? I said thirty or forty bucks. She said, 'That's too much.'"

Daniel is laughing over the phone at this memory. I said, "You took her and her dog to the spa, right?"

He laughed. "Yeah. I paid for it. I pay for everything."

6. Don't live like you're filthy, stinking rich.

"I don't dress like I have money," he said. "I drive a Lexis hybrid. The only thing I have is my house, it's full of games. It's my bachelor pad. High tech golf game. Chipping set up in the yard. That's my only trappings of being rich."

Except …

7. Fly first class.

"I don't fly anything but first class because I can't fly in a regular seat. My hamstrings are tight from playing poker so much. I can't sit like normal people."

8. Plan your trips.

With poker so popular these days, you can literally play a tournament every day somewhere in the world.

"I try to map things out six months ahead," he said. "I'm trying to do a little more in Europe."

He also has a full- time assistant who helps him organize his schedule and keep him on track. (It took two weeks just to schedule this phone call.)

9. Try to help others.

Daniel's one of those professional players who doesn't resent the millions of new players.

"There are three big things that happened that made poker as popular as it is today," he said. "Chris Moneymaker, who gave people the idea that anyone could win; the World Poker Tour and the hole card camera that brought poker into new light; and online poker."

That's actually four things. Then he adds another: "Celebrities playing poker, which makes it a cool thing."

Instead of putting down the novice players as many pros are apt to do, Daniel is trying to educate them through his newspaper column.
"It's an opportunity to promote the game, to make poker accessible to a wider audience."

He also is launching an online interactive virtual poker training website called "Poker VT," which he hopes will be the modern equivalent of Doyle Brunson's breakthrough poker strategy book 28 years ago, "Super System."

"Poker VT will be an amazing instructional experience," Daniel said. "It will be the closest thing to me teaching you how to play poker."

10. Don't get a big head.

This is actually my tip, not Daniel's. But keeping his success in perspective is really what sets him apart in poker. He's not a bully. He's not a grinder. He's not a mouth. He is that rarest of card-playing creatures, a genuinely nice guy. He loves the game. And after all his success he still plays it because it's fun.

That's good enough for me. I'm ready. World Series of Poker here I come. Hey, Daniel, can you spare $10,000 for a fellow newspaper columnist?