YouSaid · the spoken record

Daniel Negreanu

lines on the record: 220
first: 2022-09-27
most recent: 2022-09-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Because you're going to be playing much far weaker hands five, jack three, all these types of hands, and you're going to see flops where you're not going to have the luxury of being like, I'm in there with a premium hand, queens, kings, aces. Those are easier to play, right? Very, very strong holdings. Heads up, you're forced to dance and fight a lot more. You can't sit in the weeds and wait.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the biggest difference when you play, let's say, nine handed against eight other players, and heads up is, first of all, just the type of hands and the number of hands you're going to have to play. So the way that it works is if there's nine people, two out of the nine hands you have to put in money. And the other seven, you could just fold for nothing. When your head's up, you're forced to put money in every single hand. And there's only one other hand in front of you, which means the ranges of hands that you play is way wider, right? So if you're nine-handed, right, and you're in first position, you're like, all right, what do I need to play? Like a good pair, you know, two high cards suited, a big ace, you know, stuff like that. That's it, right? That's what you're going to play, right? And you're going to fold all the rest. When you're heads up, you look at a king and a two, and you're like, well, I got to play this. You know, you're forced to play a lot more hands and a lot more complex situations when you're playing heads up.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Listen, I still think the book holds up to a certain degree. Obviously, it isn't optimal because there's more advanced strategies. And if you played that way, people will figure out a way to exploit you. But if you're like an average player playing an average buy-ins, like that's sort of what I coined like smallball approach, absolutely will work. At the highest level, you have to add much more bluffing. But overall, I think it's still for the most part, there's a lot of real, especially with tournaments. There's a lot of really good principles in the book.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Plane really, really high, and you're like, okay, well, maybe the one below that, right? So I try to explain really complex theory in a more palatable way, in English, if you will. Because some of these kids, you hear them talk and you be like, huh?”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So there was a guy named Michael Essevito. This is again for a little bit more advanced players, but it's a book called Modern Poker Theory, I think it's called, which sort of explains game theory, right, to the novice, right? So it's a little bit, I think if you're new to poker, it's probably above the rim for you. But once you start to get a little better and you want to understand how to do it, it's probably a good resource as far as books. And there's also like tons of people who stream poker professional players. And then you can get in there and you get in on the chat and you start talking. You ask them and you see people, you know, explaining their thought process and things like that. There's so many free resources. And of course, my masterclass, I think, does a good job of sort of compartmentalizing like, you know, how to attack it on a deeper level. And, you know, we get it. I try to get into what's funny when I did the masterclass. I asked them, I was like, well, you know, how high-end do you want this in terms of poker? And they're like, we want really, really high end. And I was like, are you sure? And then I started.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're going to have similar situations in the future as well. So figuring that out, the more you can do that, you chop away at different strategical mistakes you used to make that you no longer make.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, one of the ways, I mean, I think way back to how I started, right? And there's so many resources and tools available right now to analyze hands, but when you play, right, and you find yourself in a situation or a hand that you're not really sure about, not because you had aces and went all in and you lost. Like that's not interesting. But an interesting situation where you're not sure what you did jot the hand down, write it out, and then either A, you know, use some of the tools, whether it's the solvers if you're advanced enough, or ask your group. you know, like have a couple friends at your level and talk through the different decisions and start to learn that way, right? Because those mistakes that you make or those tough hands, that's where the real learning comes from. So basically, because you're going to be in similar scenarios in poker, you're rarely going to have the identical situation, but you'll have situations that are similar. You know, you raise with Ace King, someone three bet, another guy goes all in. Okay, well, what do I do in that spot?”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, see, I'm trying to win. I think that gives me an advantage, frankly, where I might make decisions that are financially suboptimal because I'm trying to win. But there's also an inherent advantage to that. Like that, again, something I watched and learned from a guy like Michael Adamo, where he takes advantage of these people playing so passively in these spots. Where he's like, I don't, I'm not trying to come. I'm going to win. I'm just going to bully bulldoze you because I'm not worried about the small financial mistake of a pay jump.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I know because most of the people who make it. So, you know, when you play these high rollers, these guys are accustomed to playing for $100,000, $200. They're accustomed to this kind of money. So they're going to play, right? But you're talking about guys who bought into a $10,000 tournament, maybe never had 100K cash in their life. And now they're sitting there, and it's like one million for fifth and two million for fourth. So, like, they don't want to be bip. They're just going to sit there and go, oh, I don't want to. So they'll be under more financial pressure because they're not.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the ones, no, they're the ones that are willing to risk it, right? So there are some people who, you know, if there's five left, you know, and they're third in chips, and there's two guys very short, and they'll have Ace King and someone moves, they'll just fold. They fold the hand because they want to wait for those two other players to get broke, and that way they make actual money. So I guess the thought process between winning first place and winning the most amount of money are different. They're conflicting, right? Because in order to like if you're just if your focus is only on winning the tournament, you will make mistakes financially where you had guaranteed income for just folding, right? Let's say a guy has one chip left, you know, one chip and me and you have good chips. And I go all in with you and I lose. Now that guy got the guaranteed, he got the pay jump that I wouldn't have got. So there's some extremely stupid mistakes you can make from a financial perspective, but it's often at odds with, you know, giving yourself.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Pay jumps of like moving up a few spots. So really, the question comes down to are you the type of guy who just wants to inch up or are you going to go for it? And you're going to go for the win. I think ultimately there's some value in being the guy who says, you know, I don't care if I come seventh. I'm not worried about going from seventh to fifth. I'm here to win.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The final table is unique now, especially because you're talking about the way that poker works in tournaments is that if there's seven people left and you have just, you know, you're very short on chips. But if one other player goes out, you just make like 300,000 dollars for folding, like just for sitting out, right? The term for that kids use is ICM, independent chip model, right? Where talks about the value of each chip, where what happens, what we see now is let's say one guy has a big chip lead and there's another guy who's second in chips and there's a couple that are short, these guys in the middle, they just play super tight and they wait for the little guys to go while the big stack is just pounding them because he can afford to, right? He knows that people are handcuffed. So let's say I had 10 million in chips and you have 9 million in chips. And these guys have little chips. If I go all in on you, are you going to call me and risk like, you know, guaranteed?”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So all the amateurs are built different. Some of the amateurs are just too weak and passive. They're just waiting for the nuts, you know? And then, you know, the pros and everyone notices that. And then when they make their big hand, they don't get paid anyway. So in order to win the main event, I mean, you have to have some components of your game that are aggressive. It's very unlikely to expect to just get the cards the whole way and just always have the best hand. You're going to have to find ways to win pots that, you know, where you don't have the best hand.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Overbluffing. Well, I think amateurs generally, the biggest mistake they make is they think that pros are bluffing more than they are. Like a pro bow will bet all his chips on the end are like, ah, I don't know, maybe it's Phil Ivey, maybe he's doing some crazy stuff. He's like, He's probably just got it, you know.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Less actually. So when you play against really good players, you have to take small plus EV scenarios where you push the envelope and you're playing really aggressive. You're bluffing off your stack. You got to do this. You got to focus a little bit more on being balanced. Because otherwise, you know, you're not going to beat these guys. Whereas if you're playing with amateurs and you're playing with regular players, for the most part, risking all your chips on a bluff. Don't need to do that, you don't need to do that nearly as much. You can probably slowly but surely build your stack without taking those high-risk, high variant situations because you'll find better situations.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, yeah, I approach that event very differently than I would like playing against the hyroller players that I play with today.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, absolutely. Like, I think the World Series of Poker Main event is a unique animal in that, you know, like we talk about game theory and all that kind of stuff. If you're focused on that when you're playing, you're really not playing well, right? You need to just exploit because you're going to have a lot of people who see this as a bucket list item. You know, they just want to play the main event in World Series. And they might be scared. They might be nervous or whatever. You don't have to worry about being balanced, right? Oh, you know, I have to make sure that I'm balanced. No, you don't. You're playing with this guy now for three hours. You might never see him again. So just make the play that makes sense for you, right?”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Especially early on. Yeah. And then by the end, who knows? You know, rarely do you see, you see in the last hundred, you usually see some notable names. And then in the last 27, you might see one, maybe two, final table, maybe one. But often it's going to be, you know, some players you've never heard of before.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, you start to think at 5 p.m. and it goes till 8 a.m. And like nobody's watching anymore. So they separated into three days now. And so you're talking now, it's like six, seven days to get to the final table and another three days to play it. So you're grinding for, you know, a week and a half.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the way that it works is this. So there's let's say 8,000 players, and the way the main event works unique to others is there's various day ones you can play, right? So a day one, you're going to play from noon to like midnight, right? If you're still in, you bag up your chips, and you'll come back for day two. There's four different day ones, right? Now they'll all comebine essentially to plan on day two. And at the end of the night, they redraw the tables. So you don't just win your table if players get knocked out. tables break they continue to be replaced so you start with 8 000 then you know after day one you've got six thousand then you do the same you play you know like a 12 hour day and you slowly whittle down day four day three day four you're in the money and then you continue to progress and then what they do now with the final table is they they because they were trying to do this for tv these final tables can take you know 12 hours to play and what we were finding was”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the main event of the World Series of Poker is the hardest event to win simply because of the sheer size of it. You're talking seven, eight thousand players, right? And a lot of landmines. And frankly, there are so many players that you've not played with before, too. You play these high roller events, like these super ones. You get 30, 40 people. You know everybody. So you have an idea. You sit at the main event. You don't know. Have any idea this guy wearing a Philadelphia Eagles jersey and sunglasses and you just raised you being I don't know this guy. I don't know what he's about. So there's a lot of like it's crueling too seven, eight days where you're in the blender, as you might say.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think because, like, so, like I said, listen, I'm 47, my life is good. I don't have to be in this tournament. If I'm over it, I can just dump my chips off and go home. But I can't when I'm doing the vlog, like I have to actually answer to that, you know? Keeps me in line.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've been comfortable on camera since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor like really, really young. And it was always comfortable in that environment. I think that gives me a little bit of advantage sometimes too with these filmed events because I'm comfortable with a mic on and on camera with the lights. And I think a lot of people maybe aren't with the knowledge that other people are going to see what they're doing every day. So it's been so comfortable and easy for me. As far as the World Series goes and the vlogs and all the shooting, it's kind of therapeutic for me. It is essentially the version of journaling, right? So there's a lot of value, I think, in like, at the end of a day doing a brain dump where you just write out and journal. But doing it on camera has a similar effect. And it also, you know, when you make a mistake on your own, you're held accountable to you. But when I have to explain it to others, like here's what I did. And this is the mistake I made or whatever the case may be. It actually, I think that helps.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All of August. They didn't play any poker at all until just recently. It started to get the itch again. That's what's important for me. If I don't have the itch and I don't want to play poker, then I'm not going to be at my best. That's when I start to soak, okay, let's start watching some of these streams. Let's see what my opponents are up to lately. And, you know, let's look at some solvers and different things like that.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doing my fantasy hockey, play a little chess, you know, play some golf, watch some hockey, whatever the case may be, outside of the game. And then I start to get the itch. Like after the World Series of Poker, The poker door was closed”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, for me, now that I'm 47 and I feel like the predominant aspect of my poker game is going to be in terms of my success is going to be my mental state, right? So I find it's really, really important for me now at this age to have balance. So when I'm not playing poker and I'm out of it Poger's not even on my radar.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, if you want to get better at chess, you're already, really good, and you're trying to get one little bit better. You have to study in a ridiculous amount. And again, that's once you've already had, I think the toughest thing for anybody, once you've tasted success and you've already achieved it, staying hungry, staying on the top, reaching the top is much easier than it is to stay there.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thing, right? So, a lot of these kids, like there was a guy who beat me heads up in the million dollar one-drop. I got 8.7. He won $15 million. Kid named Dan Coleman. He was seen as like, you know, the next big thing in poker, right? He made his money. Wasn't for him, so he's moved on, you know, to doing what he's doing, skiing in the Alps, whatever. He's, you know, we have nobody seen him from like five, six years. That can happen, right? Because there is a lot of burnout. You know, I think it was actually Gotham Chess who mentioned something about how difficult it is to like, I think it's true in poker. When you get really, really good at something to get this much better takes so much work. And a lot of people don't necessarily want to put in that kind of work in order to do that.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's an online cash player for the most part, but he plays him live He's again, and I respect the peers that I play with who say, yeah, he's tough as nails. There's another kid too, Russian kid named Timafake, who's Netsov. And he plays all the games, and he's well respected, you know, in that regard. And same with a guy like Jungle Man, Dan Cates, who's a unique personality. I mean, this guy showed up, won the poker players championship back-to-back years in a Randy Macho Man Savage costume. And he was doing Macho Man the entire time. Oh, yeah, I'm going to take all the chips like I did last year, bust them all. And he was in character for the entirety of the tournament. This is great. Just unique. But yeah, respect for a lot of those guys.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so there's two different ones, but one is very, so they're both just no limit, right? So again, when I think of poker, I think of a variety of games, but there's so many of the young guys that specialize, Michael Adamo is one that I've mentioned several times, and I love the way that he approaches the game. Another one that's highly respected because of his online prowess and people have like looked and how close he is to game theory, and they say he's about as perfect as you get. And it's a kid named Linus. Linus Love Online. Linus Ling. So he just came second recently, I believe, in the Triton, huge Triton event”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Healthy respect for a healthy respect for the younger generation, how they learn, what they learn, and what they can teach me, rather than poo-poo it. Say, oh, these kids today, because that's what a lot of people like the Mike Madisos and the Phil Helmuse my generation, they just poo poo it because they don't understand it. On a level of 1 to 10, their level of understanding of this is like a one maybe I'm being generous by calling it a one. They really don't understand it, so they poo-poo it, right? It's easy to do that. Like, oh, that's not how I do it. So that's wrong, or that's stupid or whatever. I don't take that approach. I go, well, let me learn. Let me see what there is to this.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So my willingness to adapt, I think, and stay relevant by learning what the young guys of learning is something I've always done. And I also pride myself on, again, being well-rounded, like playing all the games. Like I don't feel intimidated in any game, you know, whatever the format is.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You had to jump in to the highest stakes games in Bobby's room, as they say, right? And I was able to do that when I was in my mid-20s. I was playing 4,000, 8,000 limits. You could win or lose a million dollars in a day. So I grinded it out. Like a lot of people think, oh, you know, he's lucky. He's had sponsorship. Otherwise, he'd be broke. He's like, I built multi-million dollar bankrolls before any of that stuff existed. And I did it the good old fashioned way by sitting in my butt on the table. I think probably one of my biggest strengths is self-awareness. And in that regard, a level of humility that always allows me to say, okay, well, you know what? In this case with these players, they're better than me. So what am I going to learn from them? Rather than have this need to say, I'm the best because of history. And I'm always looking to guys and go, wow, he does this really well, whether it's the Adamos or the Ivies or whoever it may be.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So for me, when I grew up, I admired the big cash game players because that's what I was. I love tournaments, but I wanted to be well-rounded. Like in my day, you couldn't make the poker hall of fame if you just played one game.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Cares so much, right? And that leads to trying really, really hard. Like he sees these moments and he doesn't phone them in. Like whatever brand of poker he plays, he tries his best at all times to succeed and to win. And there's something, even though he's fundamentally flawed in a lot of things that he does compared to some of the bigger players, his effort and will and his determination to stick around is up there.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, he definitely has his own brand and style of play, right? He does not adhere to, he's never used the solver in his life. He doesn't know, he's not in that world, right? Phil does, Phil has a lot of faith and a lot of confidence in what he does and that it will be successful. And I think there's something to be said about that, right? He doesn't ever lack in belief that he can win and he finds a way to do it his way. And frankly, a lot of what he does is very effective against specific types of players who are intimidated by him, but whether it's his resume or his demeanor or his attitude sometimes, right? Like if you're an average player and then you beat Phil in a hand, you're going to hear it. This idiot from Northern Europe and beat me in this pot. And for some people, they don't like that. So he can use that against them. But I also think, too, like.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so Phil, here's the thing with Phil He takes it very personal when I say this, and he doesn't hear the compliment. Only hears the negativity because Phil wants to be considered the greatest of all time He wants to be the greatest of all kinds. But I'm like, Phil, here's the facts. You have the best, absolute, greatest resume at the World Series of Poker of anyone in the world. Is that not enough? That's what you have. You have that, right? Now, do I think you're the best no limit hole in player in the world today? No. Do I think that you can play high-stakes mixed games with the best players in the world today and win? No. So he wouldn't get as much flack on this topic if he wasn't so boastful and demanding. Like, you never hear Phil Ivey say, I'm the best in the world. Like his peers do, right? But Phil wants to make the claim.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think also, yeah, I mean, if you'd like looking at it from that perspective in terms of goat, like goat in terms of what you represent. The cowboy, the godfather. He's been around, he played in the 60s and stuff like that. It's just something incredibly cool. I often think about if I go back in time and visit an era, I'd love to go to Vegas in the 70s and just like I'm, I already like, I can think of what it would smell like, probably not ideal, cigarettes and, you know, the leather jackets and just the vibe of what it must have been like with the mobsters and things like that. And, you know, he's lived through all that. All the cool movies we've seen. Like Doyle talks about some of those films. He's like, yeah. That guy off, he said he was going to stab me in my stomach. You know, he knows these people. It was, he's like a source of history.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But also with Doyle had to figure, you know, we talked about my generation having to figure it on her own. I mean, they really had to figure it out on their own. Like, they didn't have any computer simulation to tell you Ace King was a favorite over Pocket Sixes. They didn't. So we know what he did. He would take a deck of cards and they would deal out and they with a notepad, right? Okay, Ace King won. And then they would do like a hundred of them and be like, all right, Ace King won like 53, so it must be a favor. And he did it manually, you know, and he did it in a time when it was very, very difficult. And he's seen poker evolve and change throughout the years. Now, listen, is he going to be able to compete against the top players in the world today? Absolutely not. But how many people? He's the best 88-year-old player in the world by a mile. That's not even close. And Doyle, again, he's another guy who plays all the games. He's played high stakes cash, tournaments, you name it. He's iconic. He's the godfather.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, so let's start with Doyle What Doyle has going for him above and beyond is twofold, really longevity. I mean, he's in his late 80s. And last time I played with him, I was, I'm like, how is he getting better? Like, I really felt like he was playing better than he had, you know, in the previous years.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Got experience, he's got work ethic, he also, I think one thing I'm underselling too is his strategic mind, right? Like I believe that, you know, like I said, the new age player, they learn how to play through a very systematic approach. Okay, let's look at the data. Make up a game right now. Three cards, we each get three cards. Jacks are wild. Sixes are, you know, six of hearts is wild, right? Just make up that game. Field will figure it out intuitively, very, very quickly, right? Without having the answers for him, right? So that's like the difference between the players of my generation. We had to figure this stuff out on our own. Today, whoa, I want to know the answer. I go ask the computer and the computer tells me. So I really believe like if you created in a game from scratch that Phil Ivy would be my horse that I want to play in it.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That wasn't even that big of a goat hand, but like there's hands where, like. Was a famous one in Australia where the flop was like jackjack nine and phil check raised the flop with six seven nothing just absolutely nothing and the guy re-raised him right and Phil just knew he went all in with nothing if the guy calls he's done he's cooked but he was so tuned in that this guy's not strong that he just you know he did things like that and it's tough to play against a guy like that”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because Phil Ivey's just seeing things that nobody else is seeing, really, like subtle things, where I'm putting my hands, where I'm looking, you know, my pulse, like stuff that I don't even know I'm giving off. He's so engaged and so focused and has such a just a He's fearless, right? A lot of people, you know, they'll play poker and be like, you know what? I don't think this guy has it. But do they have the guts? Do they have the Kahones, if you will, to actually do anything about it? Right? And stand up to this person. He does.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember Huckseed, who, you know, when I was a kid growing up, he was like the poker idol. He won the World Championship in 1996, and I was lucky enough to hang out with him a little bit. And he would go through these streaks where he had an A game and he had an F game. His A game was unparalleled. Nobody could beat him, right? But his F game was so terrible that he was just the fish. He was playing terribly. And I remember him saying, and it was exactly what you're saying, he'd make like one little mistake. Right? And then he would go off. And I was like, why do you do that? Like, you know, your B game would be just fine. He's like, well, if I'm going to make a mistake, what's the point? What's the point, right? Of trying Like, if you can't play perfect, there's no point in playing at all.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's part of what makes them great, right? They don't look past the mistake and just let it, it's whatever. They want to correct it.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you know, that might even be true. It might not be as fun. I don't know. Like, I have fun at the table when you look outwardly, you look at someone. Like, is Tiger Woods having fun when he's on 17 about to win a major? Doesn't look like it theoretically.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A uniqueness to them. They're not built like us. They're not. Like, I wish I could have the kind of focus that Phil Ivy has and see everything that he's saying. That's not me. I don't have that. And he does. He has that gene, whatever it is.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the way that he approaches it. He's very intense. And he outworks everybody, and I think frankly, a lot of his mannerisms do come from them because he's young watching these guys on TV. And a lot of his ways of being is learned behavior, I think, probably from people like”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For me, until someone knocks him off the podium, the king of poker and the goat is Phil Ivy. So, and the reason I say that is I think of poker as more than just one game, right? There's different variants. You know, there's Holdem, Omaha, Stud, Triple Draw, all these different types of games. And Phil, in every arena, has been dominant, whether it was tournament poker, dominated it. Mixed game, high stakes poker in Bobby's room, dominated. Online poker against all the wizards dominated. made millions in every arena. And, you know, he sort of took a few years away from poker with his legal troubles and things like that, but he's back. You know, he's been playing in the high roller series again. And he comes from, he's cut from a different cloth, but he has a tenacity and a focus that's unparalleled, I think. When he's in the zone, I mean, for lack, and this has nothing to do with race, it really has to do with mannerism, but he does remind me of like a combination of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, like I've gone, I've ebbed and flowed. Like I said, I took on some coaches and I was really learning game theory because I felt like it was important to always keep up with what's going on. And then I do feel like to some degree, it sort of took away a little bit of my own instinctual ideas in terms of what I should be doing, right? So I think like the most dangerous version of myself is a deep understanding of the game theory with my wisdom of many years of and comfort of just sort of like being myself at the table.”
2022-09-27 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #324 – Daniel Negreanu: Poker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source