Kid Poker: “I’m Going to Play Poker as Long as I Can Physically Perform”

How Does Kid Poker Read Opponent’s Hands?

From the very start of his career, Daniel Negreanu gained a reputation as a precise hand reader with an ability to “feel” cards in an opponent’s hand, including suits. When Sean Kelly asked him how he manages to do so, Kid Poker answered:

“I’m a big believer in “we don’t know what we don’t know”. Have you ever had like a premonition or like a feeling of deja vu or who knows I don’t know?

Over the 30 years I’ve had many moments where I could feel everything in my body. Like anxiety about what cards are about to come. And the percentage of times where it’s actually right is astronomical. I wish I would have documented it throughout my history. 

My mom used to take me when we were young to those tarot card readers and they would read my cards and stuff like that. And I’ve always had a fascination with cards. And I felt some sort of connection to the “deck energy” if you will.

And like I said — I don’t know. We can get goofy New Agy like “Universe” stuff but who the hell knows man?

It could be as simple as like we’re in a sim, right, somebody’s playing me as a video game character and every once in a while they let me in on what’s about to happen because they want me to do something different. I don’t know.”

By the way, the fortune teller experience brought Negreanu a few incredible stories:

“When I was eight, my mom took me to one of the coffee cup readers. They made me drink a Turkish coffee. And then you turn the coffee cup upside down. And then you just let it sit for a while. And then you’ll see a bunch of lines in the coffee cup. And then the lady will read your lines.

So, she basically said that I was going to be very wealthy, I’m going to be famous. I mean, sure, you could tell that to a lot of different kids but she sort of hit on those basic points of like the type of person that I was. Maybe she told all the kids that and just happened to get lucky with me.

But I’ve had some interesting bad readings too. I think it was the same one, actually, the coffee cup lady. I think she also told me: “You’re going to be in love three times but they’re not going to love you as much as you love them and you’re going to end up alone”.

I was like: “What the hell?! Why would you tell something like that to an 8-year-old?!”. 

And I remember years ago I did the “Millionaire Matchmaker” show and I remember telling Patty Stanger that story. And she got like one of these numerologist guys to come and read my numbers.

So he’s there reading my number and I told him that story. I was like: “I’m kind of spooked out by people like you”, and he’s

The Secrets of Negreanu’s Prolonged Success

As Kelly noted, not many players who started off with Negreanu’s are still playing in 2024. So, logically, Kelly wondered how Kid Poker managed to remain on top for so many years.

Negreanu explained it with a little well-known joke from his X (ex-Twitter) account:

“I think the reason that I’m still around is one: I love it, I just love to play, I love to compete. And I always like being doubted. It fuels me. I love haters — thank you so much for all of you! You really drive me. Because I’ve heard so many times how many times I’m washed up and it’s like: “Oh baby, I’m gonna to prove them wrong!”.

I love it, it’s super fun for me. I don’t care, I really don’t — it’s just kind of fun for me to be able to say: “I told you so!”.

Jokes aside, Negreanu emphasized two main things that allow him to “stay relevant at the highest stakes”.

The first is self-awareness, always being honest with yourself. The second is humility to take on knowledge from younger people:

“Combining my 30 years of wisdom in playing poker with the new technology and the new sort of techniques things that people are using and sort of figure it out that way rather than like just “poo poo” it and be like” Ah these kids they don’t know better” — that’s kind of what my buddy Phil Helmuth does.

“Oh they don’t know! Nobody knows how to play!” — he always says these things. He’s like the most fun guy to play with because he’s always talking about this. Nobody knows how to play except you Phil — got it!”

His desire to learn from newer poker generation helps Negreanu study poker on levels that previously unknown to him. However, it doesn’t mean that Kid Poker knows almost everything about poker.

He still sometimes comes across players who have a much deeper and different understanding of poker. They’re the ones who motivate him to continue to explore world of poker:

“It probably happens every couple years — where I sort of take a refresher: “Okay, where am I at right now? Is the stuff I’m doing working really well?”. There was a Poker Masters, which is a big event here. I was playing against some German players, one guy named Steffen Sontheimer.

He was very-very good and he was talking about poker in a way that I didn’t even understand what he was saying. He was talking about combos, so I don’t know what that is — and I’m a professional, I should know, shouldn’t I? And there were a couple specific spots that he really just outplayed me in. That was like a wake-up call to go: “Oh boy, you got work to do”. 

That’s when I started down the path of getting more to date on modern theory, using solvers and things like that and really trying to drill it in.

And I’ll be honest with you — when I started it was intimidating. I felt like it was above me. I couldn’t figure it out. But I’m motivated and once I get it, I start to go: “Okay, now I see”. I’m going to use this computer, this AI to sort of figure out how it thinks and why it does the things it does.

Not a memorization technique, which I think a lot of people misuse because they think: “I’m going to memorize what the computer would do in this spot”. No, no, no, no — not what you want to do! You want to use the solver to sort of understand why it chooses certain strategies that it does and then Implement that.

When I play against players that have studied, I know what they study so I also know how they misapply it in some ways. I take advantage of them that way.”

Photo Credit: Danny Maxwell

How Poker Content Changed Through Years

When Negreanu started his career, the main sources of poker-related entertainment were TV broadcasts and publications in narrow-themed journals. In 2024, that’s changed. People have many more platforms to access poker content with an abundance of variation.

This evolution is something that’s fascinated Kid Poker for years, who seem to be optimistic about the future of poker content:

“I think it’s really important that poker has new ways in which it’s absorbed. We have so many new media opportunities today that didn’t exist when I was around. When I was around if you wanted poker to be on scene you had to put it on TV. Now you can create shows that you live stream on YouTube, on Twitch — whatever the case may be.

And there’s so many different angles in which people digest it! I think one of the most Innovative ways in which poker was shown was the Game of Gold. If you haven’t seen it — watch it you will love it.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a poker player or not because it sort of creates the element of reality TV with poker which I think was really cool.

I do think it’s always important to reinvent how it stuns. Celebrity poker has its niche too — some people just love seeing people that they know playing poker and shooting.

And they seem to have fun with it too. If you’re a poker purist those broadcasts are probably not for you because the level

Negreanu’s Advice for Up-And-Coming Poker Players

For players in their 20s and 30s who are just starting out, Negreanu have one advice: Do whatever you are passionate about but be ready to work hard:

“It’s not as simple as: “Oh poker? I know poker! I’m going to go to the casino and make some money!”. No, you actually have to study, you have to work hard. You have to take your lumps and — I would suggest for anybody who has a day job already — supplement with poker first before you make the switch.

Make sure that this is something that you can handle emotionally. Because when you get a paycheck every month — you’re going to get your rent paid, right? Well, if you have rent and you have bills and you play poker — your paycheck may be negative this month. If that happens a couple months in a row — what do you do then? So, there’s a risk. 

A lot of people are comfortable when they’re not under financial pressure but as soon as they are — they no longer pull the trigger on moves that they should.

For example, there’s this spot they should be bluffing for like 10,000 bucks but they’re like: “If I lose this pot — I don’t have money to pay rent”. So, they don’t do it, they end up costing themselves EV because they’re playing scared. And when you play against people that are playing scared — it’s quite easy to pick them, you just know they’re going to have it.

Photo Credits: Tomas Stacha

Negreanu’s Poker Old Age Plan

As Negreanu confessed on the podcast, he doesn’t see why he can’t play poker the rest of his life:

“Plenty of studies have shown that people that exercise the brain avoid dementia. If you don’t work out — you don’t use your muscles, they deteriorate. Well, if you don’t use your brain to think — like I look at Doyle Brunson, who passed away recently and was 89 years old, still playing the highest stakes games in the world. And had his wits about him.

I swear — I played with him about a year before he passed and he was doing new stuff. I’m like: “Bro, you’re 88 and you’re doing new stuff now!”. It was pretty wild to see.

So, I think — as long as I can physically perform, I’m always going to want to play this game because I love it. 

I also don’t play all the time, I play now quality over quantity essentially where when I feel like playing — I go out there and I give it my all. And then I take plenty of breaks. For example, I played hard this summer and I haven’t played at all in the last month.”

Negreanu explained that lightening his regular poker schedule and picking only the best games to play came at the moment when money was no longer the key motivator:

“I do have the itch to play poker but here’s what happens with the itch: I know it’s time to play again when the itch needs to be scratched. So after a long series of seven weeks I’m just dead — I got no energy, tired, I don’t want to play at all. Give it a couple weeks, all of a sudden a couple more — I start to see a little poker and I’m like: “Oh yeah!”. And I see tournaments going on and now I get excited about it again.

I think when you become successful and it’s not about the money anymore — you can be complacent if you don’t focus on playing when you actually really want to. Because if you just go through the motions you’re not going to be at your best and your results will show that”.