In a new episode of 888Ride, host David Tuchman welcomes a living legend of the poker world and one of the most recognizable names and faces in the industry. This is none other than Poker Hall of Fame member Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu, who will offer insight into his childhood in Canada, his poker beginnings, and talk about haters, solvers, and the Poker Hall of Fame's dysfunctional methodology!

From snooker to poker
 

Negreanu, the son of Romanian immigrants, smiles as he reminisces about growing up in Canada. "Toronto was a great city to grow up in. I had a very good background, both my parents loved me more than I could have ever imagined. They taught me generosity, dedication, hard work, all the things that make me who I am today."

Long before his fascination with poker, Negreanu found a fondness for the snooker halls of Toronto. "In Toronto, snooker is a very popular game; it's much more widespread than billiards. I was thirteen years old when I started playing it and I was immediately hooked on the game." Strategy, numbers, keeping track of opponents, and competitiveness - all of these things Daniel gradually took from snooker to the poker tables.

"It was at snooker that some of the guys told me they played poker. I had never played it before and I didn't know the rules. I remember going to my first poker night with ten dollars and a 6-pack of beer. It didn't take long and the money and beer were quickly gone (laughs). I was immediately intrigued by the game, at first I thought it was all about luck, but the more I played, the more I saw that the same guys kept winning. From then on I started thinking about poker more deeply and I got completely sucked into it."

A critique of the Poker Hall of Fame
 

It's been 10 years since Daniel received the honour of being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame himself. While for many players such an honor is the reward of a lifetime, Daniel doesn't shy away from discussing the institution's weaknesses. "I'll be honest and say that I think there have been a lot of mistakes in the Poker Hall of Fame. When the media voted on the new member, with all due respect to them, they had no idea what the real criteria for induction should be."

Daniel doesn't like the fact that many times the poker world and the jury are only guided by who has won how much and who is what famous name. "It shouldn't just be about the nice guys who are popular and who everyone likes. It should be about the numbers and the facts. What about the likes of David Oppenheim and Ray Dehkharghani? Or industry people like Isai Scheinberg and Matt Savage? Those people have done a lot more for poker than someone who "just" won some famous tournament."

TDA founder and WPT Executive Director Matt Savage

This is a topic that is discussed by the entire poker community every year, and whatever your opinions, there is a lot of truth to Daniel's statement. As a solution, Daniel suggests increasing the annual quota to two names instead of one, with one belonging to the player and the other to a person from the community

"How would you compare Josh Arieh to Matt Savage, for example? Something like that is, in short, impossible, they each have their own qualities and their own scope. I like Chris Moneymaker, he's a really great guy, but I think his induction into the Hall of Fame, for example, is an example of what the Hall of Fame shouldn't be about. He doesn't meet the criteria as a player, so does he meet it as an industry guy? If he's going to be judged by a man who has influenced entire industries, then yes, he can make a claim there. But the two things should be separate criteria."

How do you deal with haters?
 

Daniel has been in the spotlight for decades and is used to being talked about. But with fame comes haters, which is why David didn't ask about specific disagreements Daniel had with Norman Chad or the hosts of the Chip Race podcast (Dara O'Kearney and David Lappin). How did Daniel respond to the fact that what if he is the one who often outright "invites" hate and controversy with his statements?

"First of all, I have to say that I love my haters. I'm my own person, I never took Norman to task, but he chose to drill into me all the time, using all sorts of indiscriminate words in the process. I didn't even notice, I was told by people around me that he still had a problem with me. I did hit back a couple of times, but I never initiated it, it was always just a response to his stuff. Anyway, as for those two weird dudes, they can really talk about anything, well, and they always find a way to dig me into it. A lot of times it's my made up quotes or sugar coated stuff, but I can see that a lot of people realize that they're really just trying to slander my person at any cost.

I didn't start any of these controversies, so what do you do in those situations? You can either ignore it and leave it at that, or you can argue and defend yourself. Well, then they'll either call you ignorant and a coward or wonder why you go to the trouble to deal with such things. So it's a lose-lose situation in which you can't win. But I try to take the good out of this too, the more haters I have, the more I realize I'm somebody. I'm on a pedestal, I'm a known person and people talk about me. If I was just some uninteresting pawn in the game, no one would even stumble upon me."

Watch the full interview
 

Everything you've read above is just a selection of the full interview, which also features a number of other interesting things from one of the most famous poker players in history. Enjoy watching!

Sources - YouTube, Twitter (X), TheHendonMob, PokerNews, Poker.org