Daniel Negreanu took to a different kind of virtual streets on Thursday. Not the poker streets, but the Reddit streets, for a thorough Ask Me Anything Q&A session powered by GGPoker.
Negreanu made room in his schedule to answer a number of questions regarding his own poker journey, plans for the upcoming World Series of Poker, and how he stays excited about the game after all these years.
Fans from across the world joined the AMA to ask Negreanu their burning questions and the Poker Hall of Famer didn't disappoint. Here are some of the highlights.
What's your biggest-ever moment in poker?
The one that sticks out to me of late is the Super High Roller Bowl win against the best of the best.
You've said many times that the key to learning GTO is learning the reason why solvers say to do something and then use that to exploit others. Therefore, you don't follow perfect GTO on purpose. How would a perfect GTO bot fare in the various buy-ins in modern tournaments, for example a 1k, a 10k, and a 100k buy-in?
A GTO bot cannot lose, but its unlikely to be the biggest winner in smaller buy-in tournaments. In a $100k buy-in tough field, then the GTO bot will very likely be the biggest winner.
Cash games or tournaments?
You can't win trophies playing cash games. All you get is money and I already have money.
Is there anything us fans should know when trying to meet you? Like if you are on a break do you like to be left alone?
When I'm at the table and you see that I'm out of a hand is when you want to try and get my attention. Breaks are the worst time! I only get 15 min and shoot a bit for the VLOG, use the bathroom, take care of a few things, and so I'm always in a rush.
What are your top 3 tips for me and other first timers?
- Use the early levels to build player profiles, don't be overly active until you know your customers.
- Decide what matters most to you: Making Day 2? Cashing? Profit? Or glory? Then play accordingly.
- Understand that you probably aren't going to win the tournament and you will lose all your chips. Instead of this making you afraid to go broke, free yourself of that fear because its inevitable. Don't be afraid to pull off a big bluff if the situation calls for it. If you are wrong, and it doesn't go well, you go broke... which was going to happen at some point anyway.
Having achieved great success in the old school poker environment, has it been difficult to integrate modern poker theory into your approach to the game, and are there any things you've done or realizations you've had that helped make it click better? I'm not talking so much about just understanding the theory itself, but applying it to your in-game thought process without losing what made you great in the first place.
That's a great question and when I was learning theory I took a deep dive and went all in, to really understand it the best I could. Once I did that, I got away from some of those things and used all the new knowledge and combined it with the poker brain I developed over 30 years.
Do you still feel the same way about poker as you did when you began?
I take breaks in between series to ensure that I am excited to play. When I was young I could play everyday and maintain that excitement all year, but now I try to avoid feeling like I'm just going through the motions.
Will you be playing WSOP online event this year?
I will play WSOP online and likely do some streaming like last year.
If there was one hand you could have back. What would it be and why?
There are lots of hands I look back on that were crucial and I would play differently, but if you change the past you change the future and I'm really happy with how it all turned out.
The hand that sticks out though was the WSOP main event that Carlos Mortensen won [in 2001]. I was chip leader with 12 left and played a big pot with A-K against 6-6. If I could go back, I would have just folded the A-K.
