If you were to ask Daniel Negreanu to name one poker player to keep an eye on this summer at the World Series of Poker, you might expect to hear names like Jeremy Becker or Jesse Lonis. Well, PokerOrg's own Craig Tapscott spoke with Negreanu recently and asked him that very question.
Negreanu's actual answer? Martins Adeniya.
If you haven't heard of Adeniya, you're likely not alone, but some may recall watching him take on the likes of Rob Yong and Antanas 'Tony G' Guoga in a pot which spawned one of the all-time great 'Tony G' moments during PartyPoker's Big Game V.
Since then, Adeniya has quietly gone about his business on the tournament circuit, picking up results across the globe in World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, and WSOP events. Recently, Adeniya notched the largest cash of his career with an outright victory in the $3,500 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship for $512,600.
We reached out to Adeniya to hear from the man who caught Negreanu’s eye and find out about his plans for the WSOP.
Can you give us a quick rundown of how you got started in poker?
I was first introduced to poker back at university by a friend who showed me Rounders and I realized there's skill involved in this game. This was happening at the same time the Moneymaker boom was happening and the World Series of Poker was being played on repeat at all times.
I had an internship during university where they gave me about one day's work and the deadline wasn't until the end of the week so I had four days to fill my time. I decided I might as well use the time to get good at poker. I read some books like Super System 2 and I deposited $500 into various online sites and by the end of my work placement – maybe five or six months later – I had turned it into about $20K. I went to Las Vegas for the first time when I turned 21 and figured I could play the same stakes live that I did online. I'm beating $5/$10 online, surely I can do that live. It was a different kettle of fish and I got torn up by the regulars. I realized I had to learn how to play live poker, that it wasn't the same as online. I started going to my local casino two to three times a week, rebuilt my roll and got my degree to keep my parents happy.
By the time I finished university, I went into a job in The City to be a trader. I learned a lot about risk management and financial markets. I kept playing online alongside the job and managed to win a package to the EPT. I went out, met a lot of up-and-coming players and I was like, 'Okay, so you guys do this full-time. Okay, this is how much you can make. Okay, that's great. I'm in.'
In the next few months I managed to finish third in a major tournament for about $200K. I carried on working a few months, but then Vegas rolled around that summer and I decided it was time to quit to chase the poker dream.
Are there any lessons you've taken from your trading career to use in poker?
Yeah, there's a lot of crossover between trading and poker. I'd say number one is risk management in terms of avoiding huge losses at all costs and not playing with an amount you can't afford to lose. I'd also say discipline – being able to execute your plan without emotion and make the best decisions under pressure. I think resilience as well. You can't control the markets and you can't control the cards that come, it's just about making the best of whatever situation you're put in whether good or bad.
You've been playing poker on a high level for nearly two decades – what's the biggest shift you've noticed in how the game is played?
Back in the day, there was a lot more money in poker – a lot more easy money, people didn't really know how to play and treated it more like recreation. So, if I go back to that first summer in Las Vegas in 2009, I could go out on a night with the boys, get a couple hours of sleep, rock up to the tournament and bag a big stack for the next day. Whereas today, that does not work. Today, you need to show up rested and prepared because the strategy has improved.
There was a particular era, I think around 2015 or 2016, when solvers really started to come out and the first people to adopt them quickly became the top winners in the game. I was quite late with that because I had a blueprint, which I'd followed for the last seven or eight years, that was working. I had no reason to change. I did find, however, that all the exploits I used to have – the things I did to generate an edge – kind of slowly disappeared. It reached a stage where, in order to compete at the highest levels, you needed to study.
Daniel Negreanu named you as his 'Player to Watch' at this summer's World Series of Poker – why do you think that is?
First, I'd say that Daniel is one of the players I admired most when I was coming up and I'm lucky to now say he's a good friend of mine. I think I first met him in 2010 when we kept showing up at the same tables deep in WSOP events and he was always very friendly, very approachable, happy to talk strategy. Over the next few years, I was lucky enough to get a sponsorship deal with the sister company to Daniel's. We ended up at a lot of the same events, same parties.
I get to chat strategy with him and ask him about hands, his influence has really helped me develop as a player. It's not the standard stuff that you can look up in solvers. It's the stuff you can only really gauge from having a 30-year career and knowing people, knowing psychology. He's an expert in psychological warfare at the table while keeping everyone feeling comfortable and secure. I'm more on the technical side of things so when we discuss strategy I would come from a more solver-based approach and we'd kind of examine whether the ideas were good or bad in real life.
I believe he sees that I have a similar hybrid approach in knowing theory really well, but also knowing people and the psychological warfare side which, in the end, allows you to dominate if you put in the volume.
What are your plans for the WSOP?
So, I currently have a baby due at the end of April so, in terms of the World Series, I think we're going to play it ear-by-ear and see what we can get away with. At least two weeks for the Main Event, longer if possible. It's my first time being a father so I want to commit fully to being a good husband and father first and then focus on poker second.
PokerOrg was talking to Martins Adeniya courtesy of OLBG Casino Sites.
Images Courtesy of Drew Amato/World Poker Tour
