Daniel Negreanu has made the High Stakes Poker felt light ablaze with the staggering sum of money he’s lost, via complete blowups, misreads, horrifyingly awful suckouts or the plain-old run bad that he’s endured over all six seasons of the show.

With his upcoming seventh appearance on the show looming (read more about HSP Season 7 here), we thought it’d be interesting to look back at all of his misfortunes throughout the years on HSP, including a running tab on just how much money these forum fodder worthy hands have cost him over the years.

For a look back at some other epic HSP hands, check out this article.

Part 1: Seasons 1-3

“I’ll Bet A Million.”

The first season of HSP also had the first major suckout on poor Kid Poker by Barry Greenstein. In the hand, Negreanu raised to $2,200 with the K9c on the cutoff, and Greenstein elected to three bet on the button to $10,000 with his AcJh, getting folds from the blinds and a somewhat loose call from Negreanu; Greenstein had put in 10% of his chips already with his three-bet, and his hyper-aggressive style of play means that most flops are going to see a continuation bet for something between $10,000-$25,000; meaning you get to play an inferior holding, out of position, against a nearly 100% postflop continuation bettor who will have invested 20%+ of his stack into the hand postflop; not exactly a profitable combination.

The flop was complete gin for Kid Poker, though; 372, all clubs, but thanks to Greenstein’s ace of clubs, Negreanu was actually only a 71% favorite to win the hand at that point. Negreanu checked, and Greenstein continuation bet $10,000, to which Negreanu decided to say, “I’m gonna make it, uh, one million.” This effectively put Greenstein in for his last $81,100 (something that wasn’t made entirely clear on the show, as evidenced by GSN gleefully putting the pot size at $1,031,600) and Greenstein elected, after some deliberation, to call, deciding that Negreanu’s range had enough weaker hands like A7, 88-KK and even AxKc type hands to make it a profitable call on average; unfortunately, Negreanu had one of the strong hands in his range.

The turn card was the 7 of hearts, leaving Greenstein just 7 outs in the deck to take the $203,800 pot. The river card, however, was the jack of clubs, filling Barry’s flush and costing Negreanu his first six figure pot on HSP…but certainly not his last.

Watch the hand (Hand begins at the 9 minute mark)



“You had one out.”

This pot was the biggest of all the major run bad moments that poor Daniel has seen on HSP, and the hand that had the online realm abuzz about the saga of Daniel Negreanu and his legendary case of straight up running bad in televised poker. Gus Hansen opened UTG to $2,100 with two fives, and Negreanu popped it up to $5,000 next to act with two sixes. Everyone else folded (including Antonio Esfandiari and his AQ) and Hansen called. The flop was a disaster for Hansen; 965 rainbow, giving both players sets. Hansen checked, and Negreanu led out for $8,000. Hansen then check-raised to $26,000, which Negreanu called; so far, the hand’s been pretty standard.

The turn? The last five in the deck, giving Hansen quad fives. Hansen then made what seemed like an unusual play; he led out with his quads, but only $24,000 into the $63,700 pot. The bet looked like and felt like a feeler bet more than anything else, and possibly because of it, Negreanu elected to just flat call with his full house. Negreanu, at this point, must have thought he was trapping with his seemingly monster hand, and saw no value in raising at this point in the hand. The river was an 8, putting a 4 card straight on the board, and Hansen made one of the sickest plays you’ll ever see with the nuts on the river of a high stakes poker match.

He checked. (He checked?) His logic? Negreanu had a hand like AA/KK and would be more likely to make a river value bet if he checked than he would be to call a bet if Hansen simply led out. Ironically, this bad read probably resulted in him netting as much profit as possible out of the hand; if he had led out $50,000-$70,000, Negreanu may have been able to just find a call instead of choosing to shove. Negreanu took this check as an opportunity to make a value bet in this massive pot, and put out a bet of $65,000 into the $111,700 pot. After about ten seconds, Hansen sprung the trap and moved all-in for $167,000 more, putting Negreanu in legitimately tough spot. Against a normal player, this may be a clear and easy fold, given the massive strength represented by a river check-raise, but this is Gus Hansen making the move; a player clearly capable of bluff shoving the river in a spot like this with anything if he felt Negreanu was capable of making a big laydown. Now, if this were 2011, instead of earlier in HSP’s history, Negreanu would know that this bet is very unlikely to be a bluff, as Negreanu’s had a history of being a bit of a calling station throughout the series’s history. But, Negreanu couldn’t put the pieces together, and, stumped, he finally elected to call and lose a massive $575,700 pot with his inferior full house.

Watch it (Normal Version)



Watch it (Daniel’s Analysis)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls-5ZFX1rpo

“You can read that Daniel has a straight when the board pairs.”

Negreanu’s problems continued on the third season of HSP with running into quads. He opened on the hijack to $2,000 with the 109h, and Erick Lindgren flatted on the cutoff with two eights. Everyone folded, and flop was a monster for both players; QJ8 rainbow, giving Lindgren bottom set and Negreanu the nut straight. Negreanu continuation bet $4,000 with his nut hand, only a 65% favorite to win the hand at that point, and Lindgren flat called again. The turn was again the fatal card for Negreanu, the eight of diamonds, giving Lindgren quad eights. Negreanu continued firing, this time $12,000, and Lindgren again flat called with the new nuts.

The river actually devalued Negreanu’s hand further; the ace of hearts, filling the potential K10 draw. Negreanu, thinking he still had the best hand, made a value bet of $25,000 into the $37,700 pot, and after a few seconds of thought, Lindgren moved all-in for another $72,700, causing the normally mild-mannered Negreanu to slam his hands on the table and exclaim, “This is gettin’ so sick! How can I flop the nuts every single hand and lose!” which did two things; told the entire table he had a straight and showed that he had finally snapped, meaning many players at the table would be much more inclined to tangle with him in future pots. That was mistake one.

Mistake two? Ever considering even calling this bet against the tight playing Lindgren at this point in the hand! Looking at the texture of the board and the calling range that Lindgren would have throughout the hand, the only plausible hands that Negreanu can really beat on the river are AQ and QJ, both of which Lindgren would essentially be turning into bluffs anyways, given the board; I don’t believe he would be raising for value with hands like that. Any other combination of hands that he would’ve played from the flop on has made a better hand, either by filling up to a full house or sucking out and making a higher straight; Negreanu should have been aware of this and made a fairly easy laydown, but, after some soul searching and declarations of being completely confused, he elected to call and lost a $233,100 pot to Lindgren’s quads.

Watch more epic HSP hands from Seasons 1-6 here, and keep an eye out for Part 2 of this article where we catalog Daniel’s troubles from Seasons 3-6 of High Stakes Poker.