Daniel Negreanu's Rise From Microstakes To High Stakes Cash Champion
August 18, 2010 11:02 amEver since tournament specialist Daniel Negreanu decided to give the online high stakes tables at PokerStars his best shot, he has endured a roller coaster ride that would have put the Kingda Ka in New Jersey to shame.
Originally Daniel set for himself a microstakes bankroll challenge in January 2009 and starting with $10 at the $0.01/$0.02 NLHE level managed to progress to $0.10/$0.25 NL with a $254.68 bankroll before hitting a brick wall at the $0.25/$0.50 tables.
Before long, Daniel had lost $173.30 at that level which left him with just $80.38 after around 6,000 hands played of his challenge.
The thought of all that grinding only to lose 70% of his bankroll over just two days must have been enough for Negreanu to endure and soon after he announced he would be taking his challenge to the high stakes arena.
Negreanu then announced in February this year he would be sitting at the $100/$200 NLHE 6-max table on PokerStars with $20,000 in front of him and dared anyone to try taking it from him.
Daniel Negreanu proceeded to win around $60k on his very first session and by March 22nd that figure had reached an impressive $200,000.
Since then, he has been down to +$9k, up to $220 and down to -$9k just before and after the 2010 WSOP before breaking even last month after 10,00 hands played.
Consistent with the cyclical nature of his poker results, Negreanu once more hit a purple patch this month and, as he states in his blog on the 12th August:
“I’m on a bit of a heater winning 8 straight sessions for $454.836.50 over just 1870 hands. Sick rush. That brings my year total in that game to an all-time high, after 11,107 hands I’m ahead $257,041.80 which equates to 11.57 big blinds per 100 hands which isn’t a rate I could maintain. I’ve been lucky recently, as my All In EV shows that I should only be +$138,194.86. Either way I’m so pumped about it!
As “Kid Poker” continues on his high stakes adventure, his progress so far clearly shows the type of swings top pros have to endure in order to get ahead in the game. Time will only tell if Daniel will be able to hold on and build on his gains this time around.