Daniel Negreanu was an odd guest on Doug Polk's recent podcast, especially given the heated rivalry over the past few years between the poker pros. During that two-hour conversation, the GGPoker ambassador made a bold but reasonable claim — Jake Schindler is the best poker tournament player in the world.
Schindler doesn't always receive the recognition from the poker community in the same way as players such as Stephen Chidwick and Fedor Holz. But his resume is every bit as solid as anyone's. In live tournaments, the Pennsylvania native has over $26 million in cashes, ranking him 17th all-time. In 2019, he ran deep in the WSOP Main Event, taking 67th place for $117,710.
Negreanu showers Schindler with praise
Polk and Negreanu spent years feuding over numerous topics. In 2018, Polk went so far as to rent a billboard outside the Rio mocking his rival's supposed defense of increased rake at PokerStars, the poker site Negreanu previously represented for a dozen years.
But times have changed and they've buried the hatchet since the Upswing Poker founder beat "DNegs" out of $1.2 million during a lengthy heads-up challenge. On Polk's YouTube podcast, they discussed a number of topics, including great tournament players, in which Negreanu staked his claim for the best in the world.
"I've been saying it for several years," Negreanu said of Jake Schindler being the best tournament player in the game. "He combines all the attributes. He studies really, really hard. I rarely see him make mistakes. When I was working on my own tournament game, I watched tons of footage of just his hands."
The six-time WSOP bracelet winner continued listing Schindler's strengths as a tournament player. He praised Schindler for being so consistent and doing an excellent job exploiting other player's weaknesses.
Polk, who doesn't regularly play tournaments and is more of a heads-up specialist, didn't stake his claim as to who the best tournament player in the world is. But he did praise Schindler as being "scrappy" in tournaments and difficult to bust.
Bagging on Hellmuth
The former rivals discussed many other topics, one of them being Phil Hellmuth, the 15-time WSOP bracelet winner who crushed Negreanu in three straight heads-up matches on PokerGO's High Stakes Duel earlier this year. And neither Polk nor Negreanu were exactly complimentary of the "Poker Brat's" play.
Despite going 0-3 against Hellmuth, Negreanu made it clear he doesn't respect Hellmuth's heads-up game, and Polk concurs.
The two-hour conversation then concluded with the poker pros laughing at some of their previous feuds, including the billboard, in which Negreanu acknowledged was comical even though the billboard was a jab at him. It's clear these two poker legends have now officially buried the hatchet, which may come as a surprise to those who followed their six-year long feud.
Featured image source: Flickr
