Daniel Negreanu’s reign as all-time money winner ended last year – and this week it seems as though his ‘most popular pro’ status has ended also, KidPoker lambasted from all sides for his recent pronouncements on what a poker player should be…
Our hosts have been weighing in on @RealKidPoker’s recent tweets about who’s good and who’s bad for poker…
? https://t.co/0usVGXP076 pic.twitter.com/N11C0Nvs49
— ? THE CHIP RACE ? (@thechiprace) January 26, 2019
The Irish on the Attack
It was a double-barrelled attack from Irish duo David Lappin and Dara O’Kearney that went viral on Twitter. The pros were calling Negreanu out on his holier-than-thou attitude which has led many to revise their views on the Candian PokerStars ambassador…
I just wrote a blog about a preacher from Renaissance Florence and @RealKidPoker, giving my take on Daniel’s recent spate of tweets about winning players and, in his view, how they should behave.
RTs appreciated! pic.twitter.com/kB2M3t6UlH
— David K Lappin (@dklappin) January 25, 2019
New blog! Taking a break from #aussiemillions to give my take on the latest comments from @RealKidPoker on who is and isn’t “good for poker”https://t.co/aeB2I5zCc1
Retweets/comments/shares appreciated always pic.twitter.com/bxZmdlZkjZ
— Dara O’Kearney (@daraokearney) 26 January 2019
Daniel Negreanu sparked the backlash by Tweeting his views on what characteristics ‘good’ and ‘bad’ players possess. He had to rewrite his post after being pulled up for language used in the first one – describing certain players as a “cancer” to the game.
David K Lappin was first to land a blow on Negreanu, stating in his blog piece: “Daniel’s words are divisive and another layer of his assault on the poker pro, pitting recreational players against them, creating the false narrative that in a game where everyone competes, where winners and losers are inevitable, that the winners are the problem, unless they conform to his strict set of guidelines of how to behave”.
Lappin added: “I suppose my biggest objections to Daniel’s tweets are that they come from a position of such privilege, are so dogmatic, possesses such a ‘holier than thou’ patronising tone and ultimately come from a man who lives in a bubble.
“He doesn’t play €20 games in his local casino. He doesn’t play €1/€2 cash games. He doesn’t play the €500 or €1K circuit. Yet he claims to know what’s best for everyone and thinks he has a right to tell other people how to act, or worse still, be”.
If Lappin’s blog was a brutal left hook, then fellow Irishman Dara O’Kearney’s response was a thunderous straight right to Negreanu’s ego.
“Like most stars, Daniel’s fell,” wrote O’Kearney. ”When he felt contractually obliged to defend his sponsors after they effectively stole from their most loyal clients, he lost a little credibility. When he tried to justify nonsensically that more rake was better for recreationals, it fell further. More recently, he’s tried to poke fun at critics and pros, suggesting that they are “bad for poker”.
Counsel for the defence
With hundreds of retweets and comments piling up against Negreanu, the PokerStars ‘shill’ as he was invariably described, tried to placate the baying mob by delivering his own blog post.
In it he wrote: “You can disagree with my stances on issues related to the game. If you do, I would hope that you are open to civil discussion about it. Rather than attack my character, and who I am as a person, I think it would be more worthwhile to discuss why you think my thoughts and ideas are wrong”.
Damage Limitation?
Damage limitation Daniel. It’s honestly hilarious you’ve responded like this today. Did @PokerStars suggest you come out fighting? You write elloquently but the problem is your arrogance has lost you so much support with your core following / fanboys in recent times. I was one.
— Saying it out loud (@Asyouthinkit) January 27, 2019
The main problem being, Negreanu is becoming notorious for blocking those who disagree with him regardless of their tone, as O’Kearney soon found out…
Oops pic.twitter.com/ZJs8Cenhjb
— Dara O’Kearney (@daraokearney) January 27, 2019
As the list of Daniel Negreanu’s sins grew – PokerStars shill, the BlackFace incident, calling certain types of player ‘cancer’, accusations of victim-shaming those who have been scammed, out-of-touch with poker’s reality, unwilling to admit he is wrong, etc – Negreanu resorted to the easy-out option.
BlackFace and BlockFace
He responded by claiming that he blocked an account rather a person, evidently unhappy about the continually resurfacing ‘blackface’ photos/video – which he claims have been taken entirely out of context…
Not at all. I didn’t block Lappin. I blocked that account because I don’t see how posting a pic of me in blackface is relevant to the discussion. Seems like more of a smear attempt on my character so I hit the block button.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) 27 January 2019
What Negreanu seems to be failing to recognise is, as hundreds of commenters on Twitter and poker forums the world over have been trying to explain, is that his views on poker and those who inhabit the game are simply that – one man’s views rather than a bible to follow.
Daniel: I have a problem with arrogance but I’m working on it
3 hours later
Reasonable person: ‘I think the poker community would see a nit as this’Daniel: I’LL DECIDE WHAT THE POKER COMMUNITY THINKS A NIT IS@dklappin @CeeGeePoker pic.twitter.com/UtKESW38sW
— Ben Morrison (@liveplayer01) January 27, 2019
It seems that Daniel Negreanu’s top dog status in the poker world is assured for a while yet. If only in the ‘most-disliked pro’ charts that is.
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