My interview with Daniel Negreanu (to be seen in the Scene)

(My interview to be seen in the upcoming issue of the Scene - all copyrights reserved)

Daniel Negreanu, one of the most recognizable and popular poker players in the world today with most of his popularity coming from his sociability at the poker table and his uncanny ability to read his opponents, was recently in Manila to play in the inaugural event of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) with his new sponsor, Pokerstars.com, as the tournament’s banner sponsor.

Negreanu was in the Philippines only for a short while during the time of the interview he had a good impression of Poker in the Philippines and while he has been playing major poker tournaments such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and World Poker Tour (WPT), Negreanu has played with players that hail from different countries, but he is surprised with the growth of poker in Asia especially in the Philippines. “It’s new to me coming to an Asian country I’ve never been and seeing how popular poker is here,” said Negreanu “We see a large Asian contingent in Los Angeles and the World Series but actually coming here and seeing how much press and popularity it’s great.”

Traveling and being recognizable comes with it certain responsibilities that some athletes do not particularly like to carry, Charles Barkely made it a point in one of his commercials that he was not a role model, but Negreanu welcomes the mantle of being an ambassador in Poker. “In whatever you do, if you are in the public eye, you need to conduct yourself in better and not do things that would put you in a bad light.” Negreanu does this with the same friendliness that he is known for at the felt, his approachability during the APPT press conference melted much of the shyness that the Filipinos are known for, albeit the Filipino media.

With the success that Negreanu has reached on the way to amass his over US$10 million tournament winnings at various WPT and WSOP events, he still has the need to tinker and tweak his poker game to counteract new players and the TV time that he has gotten. “I tinker my game, especially with the influx of online players and the way they play at an optimal level,” said Negreanu, “and since the TV coverage of the tournaments is extensive, a lot of people have seen my game.” He recalls the story of another poker great, Doyle Brunson and how he had to retool his game after the publishing of his first Super System book.

While other poker pros admonish players to have different game strategies when it comes to tournaments and ring games but Negreanu does concede that his tournament game and his ring game is similar, in an extreme case. “In High Stakes (Poker TV show) you are deep stack so you get play like you are in a tournament,” said Negreanu, “and you can get away with a lot more stuff than normal.” He also admits that he has a particular liking to 10-7 offsuit as the hand that he normally doesn’t play but has surprisingly been a winner for him in some situations.

In recent months, Negreanu has been in a blog-based “discussion” with the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) about their rules regarding the showing of cards in tournaments by players. He has argued that it brings a new level of play to the tournament when a player would bet and show his opponent a hole card. “It would be good TV if a player bets and then shows a queen,” said Negreanu. One of the main contentions of the TDA is that showing cards would foster collusion between players but he disagrees, “The last thing players that collude would want to do is show their cards, they would rather give each other signs or something.” He says that he has since talked with the TDA and would like to see a better compromise than the prevailing “Show one, show both” rule.

Another topic that poker enthusiasts talk about is Negreanu’s treatment of Mike Matusow as a whipping boy for his jokes especially during telecasts of High Stakes Poker but he maintains that it is all in good fun. “Mike’s like a six year old in a man’s body,” said Negreanu, “But he is my good friend. There was one time that some people called Mike about what I was doing to him on TV and he called and I said ‘You don’t see me do that to anyone else.’ We’re close, that’s why I do it and he doesn’t mind it at all.”

The third season of High Stakes poker also gave viewers a closer view Negreanu when he lost an enormous pot to Gus Hansen when both had pocket pairs (6’s vs 5’s) and both made trips on the flop with Hansen only needing his last 5 to win the hand and the turn delivered the case five much to the chagrin of Negreanu, which seemed to be staggered a bit, but then again who would blame him? “It’s (Bad Beats) one of those things when you play for a long time you see, quads over quads and such,” said Negreanu, “But that’s poker, and as long as you did the right play in that instance then you shouldn’t second guess yourself.”

Negreanu also had some other words for would-be poker players “It’s easier to be better at poker than before with the TV shows, online and poker books,” Negreanu said, “But you need to learn the basics of the game first, then you can learn about the bluffing and the other things about poker.”

Mission Accomplished: 12 make it to APPT's Big Dance

Twelve players, led by the flamboyant Wally “The Dream” Sombero, were given their Golden Coins as their entries into the APPT-Manila Main Event during the PBT APPT Level 2 Satellite last August 18.

Before the tournament, the atmosphere outside the Le Salon ballroom was that of a reunion, with friends seeing other friends that have been out of the poker circulation for one reason or another, and stories being bandied about. Most of Manila’s top players were in attendance, trying to get to the APPT Main event though the event. But as the players made their way into the ballroom, the action was hot and heavy right off the bat as even Eduardo Uy, PBT co-founder but only a player that day, went all-in on the second hand of the tournament. With the flop reading J,9,6 with two clubs, Uy’s all-in was called and was in good shape with his top two pair against his opponent’s nut-flush draw, having a 2-1 advantage going into the turn. But when the turn gave a club, Uy’s tournament life was at stake and he was a 9-1 dog with only four cards to save him but wouldn’t you know it, he spiked a 9 on the river giving him a full house and seriously crippling his opponent who was left with 500 of his original stack of 15,000.

As each player has an option for an add-on until the end of the third level, players awaited the calculation of the prize pool to see how many of them are going to go to the biggest poker tournament in the Philippines to date. As players frantically cajoled players who hadn’t added on yet as the time dwindled during level three, they were not sure if their efforts were going to be effective. Only after the break did the players received confirmation that there were indeed 12 of them going to the main event of the APPT. Each of the seats costing US$ 2,500 and represented by a Golden Coin, designed and made specifically for the event.

Bad beats abound as the size of the field gave rise to exotic hands, with full houses being beat by other full houses and the like. Tight play was the order of the day especially as the tournament wore on. Tables were quickly collapsed as players were eliminated. With two tables remaining, the tournament director asked for the redrawing of seats to give all players a fresh table. A slower pace greeted the top 20 as tight players became tighter. Spectators were excited with all-in declarations but were dashed as most were not met with other players all-ins.

With 14 players remaining, PBT-regular “M.M.” pushed all-in at the small blind position with his A-7 but bumped into big blind and PBT-original Harvey Ty’s pocket aces. As they said, it was all over but the crying as Ty was a 93% favorite going into the community cards. “M.M.” was eliminated when none of the sevens he needed came up but the case Ace did make an appearance on the river much to his chagrin.

The blinds escalation was frozen and the game went into hand-for-hand mode as there were only 13 players remaining and spectators and players alike were going back and forth from the two remaining tables and a cheer erupted when Halo player Garry Gaw went all-in. Giving some thought and counting his opponent’s chips, Sombero quietly contemplated the call, because a wrong call would see him lose about 40% of his healthy chip stack. The crowd was silent and then joyous as the Dream said “call,” and Gaw showed his A-7 to which gave way to some “Oohs” from the spectators but when Sombero showed his A-Q suited, everyone began to cheer for the Dream to finally end the tournament. With no help from the flop, turn nor the river, Gaw was unlucky 13 and the Level 2 Satellite was over and the remaining 12 players gave each other high fives, hugs and congratulatory hand shakes (in case they didn’t know each other).

With the win on the last hand, Sombero was declared the champion of the tournament based on his amassed chip which was over 400,000. Doctor Ronald “Doc Butch” Javier, another original PBT player, came in second and was the chip leader in the other table. Relatively unknown D. Carmona wound up with the 3rd most chips for the tournament and 3rd place for his efforts. Ty, Nok Atienza, Actress Jenny Hernandez, Eric Mendoza, Dennis Gamboa, Philip Abadilla, Shaun Bradley, Ronnel Sto. Tomas and newbie Dex Ong (in his first poker tournament!!) round out the magic 12.

We would like to thank all the players for their support in every and all PBT endeavors, because without you guys there wouldnt be a PBT. To Pokerstars.com for giving us the chance to prove ourselves, to PAGCOR's poker department especially to SMH Mabuhay Rosero for giving us the guidnace to be successful in this event, to the Hyatt Casino Filipino especially SBM JB Bangsil and Hyatt Hotel's GM Godfried Bogensperger and their rest of his tireless staff because without them this tournament would never been as successful and lastly to the dealers of Metro Asia, who were baptised in fire in this event but proved themseleves as capable poker dealers (but then again, I knew they could do it).

And down the stretch we come . . .

Coming into the home stretch, PBT has (as of August 3) 75 seats for our level 2 APPT satellite tournament which is scheduled for August 18, 2007, 4pm at the Le Salon Ballroom of the Hyatt Hotel.

Win your level 2 APPT satellite tournament in PBT's level 1 tournaments Wednesdays nights (9pm) and Saturday afternoons (4pm), now in Super Satellite mode (with only four level 1 tournaments remaining), Php 1,000 buy-in plus Php 200 entry fee with the power of two (your choice of rebuy or add-on) to maximize the players winning seats into the August 18 tournament.

Get your chance to win one of the projected 10 APPT main event seats (Worth $2,500) from the PBT level 2 APPT Satellite tournament. The best APPT Satellite deal in town, giving the players more, as always.