Brian Fidler Poker
- WPT Career Highlights Value Rank; Career Earnings $ Cashes: Final Tables: Titles: WPT Career Stats Recent Tweets @WPT Tweets by @wpt.
- While the statement might seem like marketing hyperbole, the tournament winner, Brian Fidler, has proven that it could become reality. Fidler, a 27-year old hedge fund accountant from Stamford, Conn., finished second at the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Lake Tahoe earlier this month to net more than $200,000 in winnings.
LAKE TAHOE, Nevada – (PRESS RELEASE) - After just seven weeks of understudy with one of poker's most successful tournament players, Brian Fidler of Derby, Connecticut, a member of the FullContactPoker.com community, finished second late last night at the 2006 World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Lake Tahoe.
Daniel Negreanu (; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player who has won six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. The independent poker ranking service Global Poker Index (GPI) recognised Negreanu as the best poker player of the decade in 2014.
Since his second place finish in the Big One For One Drop 2014 tournament, he is the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time, having accumulated over $33,000,000 in prize money. He was named the WSOP Player of the Year in 2004 and again in 2013, making him the first (and only) player in WSOP history to win the accolade more than once. He was also the 2004-05 WPT Player of the Year. He is the first player to make a final table at each of the three WSOP bracelet-awarding locations (Las Vegas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific) and the first to win a bracelet at each. In 2014, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
Video Daniel Negreanu
Personal life
Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1974, seven years after his parents, Annie and Constantin, emigrated from Romania. The Negreanus had hoped to start a new life in the United States, but ended up settling in Toronto, where Constantin worked as an electrician and sold confectionery. Daniel is five years younger than his brother Mike. Even at an early age, Negreanu was extremely ambitious, stating in a 2009 interview 'From the age of four, I thought I'd be rich. I told my mom I'd build a house out of Popsicle sticks, and move to California.'
He attended Pineway public middle school in North York, where the principal complained to his mother about Daniel's 'poor manners or behavior' and threatened to expel him for 'ignoring the school rules.' While nursing dreams of a career as a professional snooker player, the then 15-year-old learned how to play poker. At the age of 16, he was spending time in pool halls, hustling, sports betting, and playing cards.
When he was several credits short of graduation, he dropped out of high school and began his life as a rounder playing at local charity casinos, usually at Casino Country and Fundtime Games, and looking for illegal games around the city. While in Toronto, he met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building up his bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 22 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional poker player. However, 'The Strip' got the better of him and he was forced to move back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.
In August 2005, he married Lori Lin Weber; they separated in November 2007.
Negreanu has a blog at Full Contact Poker where he posts his thoughts and feelings about life, politics, and the poker world. He is also a heavy National Hockey League (NHL) fan, once claiming on Poker After Dark at the dream table he was thinking of declining the offer because the tournament was in the middle of hockey season. He is often seen wearing NHL jerseys of the Toronto Maple Leafs and other teams. Daniel became a vegetarian in 2000 and has been vegan since 2006. After many years living in the United States, he received his green card on July 15, 2009. On November 23, 2009, his mother died in her sleep after being ill for many months.
Philanthropy
Negreanu has a history of philanthropy. In addition to frequent appearances in charity events such as 'Ante Up for Africa', which raises money for the crisis-torn region of Darfur, Negreanu is the founder of the annual 'Big Swing' charity golf event. The first annual Big Swing event was held on June 25, 2009 at the Harrah's Rio Secco Golf Club. Professional poker players paired with celebrities who donated $3,000 to the Lili Claire Foundation, a Las Vegas charity that serves children born with special needs and their families.
Maps Daniel Negreanu
Poker career
Brian Fidler Poker
Negreanu is an accomplished tournament and cash game player. He has amassed six World Series of Poker bracelets (WSOP), two World Poker Tour (WPT) championships, and reached numerous WSOP and WPT final tables, and won various other tournament titles. Negreanu was named the 2004 Card Player Player of the Year and the WSOP Player of the Year. He was also named the 2004-05 WPT Player of the Year. In 2006, Negreanu was named 'Favorite Poker Player' at Card Player Magazine's Player of the Year Awards Gala. In 2013, he captured two WSOP bracelets as well as another WSOP Player of the Year award, becoming the only player to win the award twice. In November 2014, Negreanu was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
In the past, Negreanu has regularly played the 'Big Game' in Bobby's Room, in the Bellagio casino, Las Vegas, where the limits are $400-$800 or greater and the games are mixed. He is a self-admitted action junkie who always seeks new challenges and sets high goals for himself, not only at the poker table but also on the golf course. Unlike many other players, he is very outspoken about his poker results and regularly posts updates in the forums at the Full Contact Poker website. Some of Negreanu's success is attributed to his ability to read opponents. When asked about this, Negreanu explained that the most important skill he employs is observing what hands his opponents play and how capable they are of playing them.
Tournament poker
World Series of Poker
Negreanu's first cash at the WSOP was also his first WSOP bracelet. Negreanu won $169,460 in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event in the 1998 World Series of Poker, becoming the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history -- a record he held until 2004 (Scott Fischman). Negreanu has since captured another five bracelets. He has 36 career WSOP final table appearances, including two apiece at the WSOP Europe and at the WSOP Asia-Pacific, and 103 money finishes.
An 'A' following a year denotes bracelet(s) won at the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific
An 'E' following a year denotes bracelet(s) won at the World Series of Poker Europe
World Poker Tour
Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)
World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)
Other notable tournaments
Negreanu's first major successes on the tournament poker scene came in 1997 with three tournament wins, including two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Resort Casino, earning $55,064 and being named the tournament's best all-around player.
In November 2008, Negreanu won the fourth-annual British Columbia Poker Championships main event, topping a field of 690 players (a personal high for Daniel), and earning $371,910 CAD ($299,951 USD).
Negreanu won $1 million as the winner of the 2016 Shark Cage tournament organized by PokerStars.net.
As of 2017, his total live tournament winnings exceed $34,000,000. His 103 cashes at the WSOP account for over $16,000,000 of those winnings.
Cash games
In addition to Negreanu's regular appearances in the big game at Bobby's Room, he played in all seven seasons of the television show High Stakes Poker. He also played in two seasons of PokerStars Big Game.
Online poker
In December 2005, Negreanu became the professional spokesperson for an online poker site called Poker Mountain. He played at this cardroom under the screen name 'KidPoker'. In June 2005 he announced his decision to terminate that relationship due to software issues that were problematic enough to cause a shutdown of the site. In 2006, he used Full Contact Poker to launch a competition to select a protégé, whom Daniel would attempt to mold into a world-class live tournament poker player. He agreed to pay the protégé's entry fee into four $10,000 buy-in events. Daniel's first protégé was Brian Fidler. In 2007, Daniel ran a second protégé promotion, which was won by Anthony Mak.
In June 2007, Negreanu signed with PokerStars, joining Chris Moneymaker and many other professional poker players as a member of Team PokerStars. His Full Contact Poker site has since returned to being a forum and informational site. After 'Black Friday' (the 2011 US government crackdown on online poker), Negreanu moved back to Canada in order to continue playing online poker on PokerStars.
Other poker activities
Upon opening, the Wynn Las Vegas resort recruited him as their 'Poker Ambassador' to play for any stake in their poker room. The arrangement lasted until October 2005, when he opted out because it was restricting his ability to play for high stakes outside the Wynn.
Negreanu has played poker on various TV shows such as Late Night Poker, Poker After Dark, and High Stakes Poker, as well as serving as a commentator and stand-in host on Ultimate Poker Challenge. He also appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. In January 2007, Negreanu appeared in the Fox Reality original series Rob and Amber: Against the Odds, in which he mentored reality television personality Rob Mariano in his bid to become a professional poker player.
In May 2008, Negreanu's book Power Hold'em Strategy was released. The book resembles the Doyle Brunson book Super/System in that it has contributions from several other poker players, including Evelyn Ng, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wasicka, Todd Brunson, and David Williams. Negreanu's section presents and explains the strategy of small ball poker. Negreanu is also featured in the 2006 poker video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, providing tips and hints as to how to play effectively. He has written over 100 articles for CardPlayer Magazine and contributed to Doyle Brunson's revised book, Super System II. He has tutored on the web as part of Poker School Online and also personally given lessons to celebrities such as Tobey Maguire and Shannon Elizabeth.
Other ventures
Negreanu made a cameo appearance as a poker player playing against the mutant Gambit in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine as well as a poker player in The Grand, and as himself in the film Lucky You. On season two of Sports Science, he attempted to fool a lie detector. He also appeared in Katy Perry's music video for 'Waking Up in Vegas' as a poker player. On March 20, 2013 he appeared on an episode of the CBC Television program Mr. D, playing himself. Besides that, he also appeared in a TV series dedicated to poker called Tilt in 2005. Daniel was a major advocate of the move to bring the National Hockey League to Las Vegas, along with fellow poker player and Chinese billionaire Richard Yong.
Negreanu is also an avid fan of Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft. After picking up the game in 2015, he began streaming it alongside poker on Twitch and was invited to a showmatch during the Hearthstone World Championship at BlizzCon 2015 in Anaheim, California against former StarCraft: Brood War pro and fellow WSOP and WPT champion Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, which he won 3-1.
Brian Fidler Poker Table
Bibliography
- Hold'em Wisdom for all Players (2007) ISBN 1-58042-210-1
- Power Hold'em Strategy (2008) ISBN 1-58042-204-7
- More Hold'em Wisdom for all Players (2008) ISBN 1-58042-224-1
Brian Fidler Poker Tournaments
Brian Fidler Poker Show
Notes
External links
- Official website
- Daniel Negreanu Interview (video)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
Like the first Star Wars movie, this post comes first in delivery, though not in chronology. The recap of my trip is forthcoming, time allowing.
Saturday morning came early for me. I was still tired from the night before, when I decided to get in a couple hours of cash game before bed. I had been playing bad and running bad since arriving in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, I was undeterred, and jumped out of bed with both feet hitting the ground simultaneously. I showered and dressed for comfort, with a t-shirt layered under a long sleeve warm-ish collared shirt. The over-shirt was black with a collar, for a little subconscious intimidation and a little concealment of my neck (pulse and adam's apple/swallowing motion.) As it turns out, the room was a little warmer than I expected and than was advertised. Most of the first day I was sporting my Pink Floyd t-shirt with the pink pig. I also wear a hat in tournament play, which keeps minimizes distractions (like blinders on a horse) and to conceal my eyes when I opted to tilt my head down. I selected my Detroit Pistons hat for this occasion. (Yes, I'm a huge Pistons fan living in Chicago).
We got on the Caesar's-Rio shuttle around 10AM, 2 hours before cards were in the air. I had already registered, so I just needed food and walking time from the front doors of the Rio to the Amazon Room (about 3 days by dogsled).
When we got to the Sao Paulo Cafe, there was a line out the door of about 50 people. It seemed to be moving fast, so I was unconcerned. After 20 feet, the line slowed considerably, and then seemed to come to a stop for many minutes at a time. It didn't help that there was a separate line for 'Platinum Guests' (which reflects their tier of privilege in Harrah's Total Rewards program), and that they would simply walk in and be seated rapidly, and ahead of all the patiently waiting 'Gold' and Gold-minus guests.
We finally got our food at about 11:35 or 11:40. I finished eating at about 11:56am, and left Mrs. Chicago with the bill. I hoofed it to the table, arriving about 5 after, or 8 minutes before the first cards were actually dealt.
I didn't recognize anybody at my table when the game began, but about 12 hands in, a familiar face sat down. I couldn't place him at first, but after 30 minutes I had a good idea - it was Brian Fidler, Daniel Negreanu's first Protege. He struck me as overly confident, but was nice enough.
I played mainly tight poker for the first 40 minutes, and refrained from voluntarily putting chips into the pot for the first two or three rotations. On the third rotation or so a player in early-mid-position put in a 3x raise. It folded around to me on the button, and I looked down to see the JT of clubs. Since I had been talkative, friendly, and confident, but had yet to play a hand, and the player seemed to be a bit concerned when he put his chips in, I decided to see how a smooth call would be perceived. The raising player immediately shot me a glance and I nodded.
The flop came fairly innocuous and with two clubs. My opponent made a continuation bet and I called. The turn was a blank and we checked it through. The river was a third club, giving me a flush. My opponent checked, I bet half the pot, he called. I had more than my starting 3000 chips for the first moment of the tournament.
I played very tight for another few rotations until it became obvious that the table was playing extremely tightly. I played a couple hands merely to benefit from that fact, and before long the table broke and I was moved all the way across the room - Table 199.
This table was substantially more aggressive. I recognized a player four seats to my right, but couldn't place him. I knew who he was, but didn't know WHO he was. I just got to the bottom of that mystery - he was Shannon Freakin' Shorr! This 22-year old poker phenom won the Bellagio Cup II main event last year after having won one of the undercard events. He cashed twice already at the WSOP this year, and has 26 cashes in major events for a total of $1.6 Million in winnings. He finished 4th in the POY standings last year.
I'm glad I didn't know who he was for sure, as it may have intimidated the hell out of me. He was pretty quiet, as he was short on chips for much of the time we shared a table. He did make a few fancy moves to keep himself in the game. We played a couple hands together, though I was aggressive and he couldn't play on without committing his stack.
After a few rough hands, I was back below my starting stack again. When the second level ended, I was getting nervous.
An aggressive player in his young twenties moved to our table two seats to my left. He was wearing a hood, and was not a pleasant addition to the table. [Sidenote: the vast majority of people I shared a tournament with were polite, conversational, and in many cases, even fun. I was pleasantly surprised.]
As I was getting nervous about my shrinking stack (back around 3000), I was looking for opportunities to pick up a few chips. I was on the button with one limper in the pot and found A6 of hearts. In general, this is NOT an automatic raise, and a strong argument could be made for folding in this spot with short chips. A better argument might be made for folding. I made a smallish raise (3x?) and got the aggressive player in the BB and the original limper to join me for a flop. The flop came 5,6,9 with two spades. Both players checked to me and I decided to protect what I thought could be the best hand. Both players called. I wasn't sure where I was in the hand. Could they both be drawing?
The turn was a non-spade ten and both players checked to me. I thought I might be behind at this point. A big bet would probably get two folds, but would risk my tournament life. A check seemed safest, despite the fact that I may be sacrificing the pot. The pre-flop limper was likely to have the best hand, I surmised. And I was almost sure that the big blind was on a draw - spades most likely. That was my feeling at this point anyway.
The turn came something unhelpful (3c maybe?), though if I remember correctly, put three clubs on the board (running clubs). The big blind thought for a moment and then put out a bet of 1800 chips. This was about half his remaining stack, and about 70% of mine. The mid-position player folded. Now all I was left with was third pair on a messy board, but his bet was so fishy. What could he have that would cause him to call pre-flop and check-call the flop and check the turn? If he flopped a made hand, there were draws to fear and he would have to protect them. If he had a club flush, his cards would have to be good in another direction (i.e. pair and straight draw?) to call the flop bet. I was confident that he either had made two pair with two little cards or had absolutely nothing (still imagining a spade draw). Also, his bet was a little too big for me to call without a big hand, which I wasn't likely to have either. At this point, I was sure he wanted a fold... so I called.
He said, 'nice call' and held his cards face down over the muck. He clearly didn't want to turn them over, and I didn't want to be a jerk.
I said, 'third pair', with a half-grin that someone who knew me would describe as a little bit smug. I turned my cards face up and proudly spread them on the felt as if to say, 'Don't f@*k with me!' This guy was an agressive pot stealer, and I didn't want him in anymore of my pots.
He released his cards and I got at least three 'nice call!' and 'wow, excellent'-type remarks. Not only had a gotten my chips healthy again, but my confidence was healthy as well.
The mid-position player, who folded to the flop bet with me remaining to act behind him let me know that he had actually folded the best hand. Now I really felt good about the way I had analyzed the hand.
I stood up for a few minutes during the next hand to get rid of the heebie-jeebies that crept in when I thought I may have just called my way into deep doo-doo...
To be continued...