Negreanu Sheds Light on Tough Life of a Tournament Player

Negreanu Sheds Light on Tough Life of a Tournament PlayerDaniel Negreanu has won more money playing live tournaments than any other player, with the 43 year-old Hall of Famer having amassed $35,319,814 over a career dating back to 1997. More than $3 million of that amount was won in 2016 and 2017 alone, but the ever changing face of the game meant that he actually made an $86,140 loss over the past two year, and that’s not even counting expenses associated with attending various tournaments around the world, including travel and accommodation.
Negreanu released the revealing news via his Full Contact Poker blog, with the pro squarely putting the blame for his negative balance on the numerous super high roller events that are featured at casinos throughout the year. As he explains:
“Well, the truth is, if a player plays the full high roller schedule and cashes for $2 million, they are all but certain to have had a losing year, and that’s before expenses.”
Elaborating further on last year’s results, Negreanu said that he entered a total of 71 events with an average buy-in of $40,481 for a total outlay of $2,874,164. He subsequently cashed in at 29.6% of them for a payout of $2,792,104, thus resulting in an overall loss of $86,140 for the Team PokerStars Pro.
Furthermore, Negreanu says that he stakes all his tournaments rather than offering a piece of his action to backers, although he did say he was not prepared to pay more than 50% of the $1 million price tag for the WSOP One Drop event scheduled for later on this year.
Super High Roller tournaments have become an increasingly familiar part of the poker tournament circuit over the past few years, whereas a few years ago they were fewer and further between. This is reflected in the results Negreanu released for his last five years of play, with the pro having made a profit of $1,963,500 in 2013, followed by $7,100,164 in 2014, and $952,920 in 2015, before losing -$1,246,693 in 2016, and -$86,140 in 2017.
The good news for the pro is that he made a total profit of  $8,733,074 over this five-year period overall, providing him with an income of $3,405 per hour. Of course Negreanu doesn’t have to rely on just his tournament winnings, though, as he has various lucrative sponsorship deals in place with companies, not least PokerStars.


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