Daniel Negreanu shows his best poker skills in a tournament

Daniel Negreanu is one of the best known and most respected poker players. He is not only a great tournament player and cash: his reputation also stems from his friendly and personable personality. He also has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) fan bases. In this article you will see an amazing reading of Daniel Negreanu.

The game is a 9 player No Limit Hold’em tournament with $100/$200 blinds. Adam Joens makes the call on UTG with 2h7h. It’s a very weak UTG call with the worst card combination possible. At least it’s suitable! Negreanu looks at his pocket nines (9d9h) and raises to $2200. A reasonable raise to thin out the player count and perhaps enough to win the pot right there. The next player, Peter Antill, also has a pocket pair but much smaller (4s4c). His hand is still valuable with good implied odds if he hits, so he calls $2,200. Now the amateur players make the hand a bit crazy: first the big blind calls with KdTs and Joens doesn’t want to fold with his two-seven and then calls. Four players see the flop. The pot is $8,800.

2s4h6d is the flop, giving Joens a pair of deuces, Antill a pair of fours and Negreanu a pair of nines. Adam Joens test bets $2,800 with his deuces. Daniel Negreanu begins his “incredible reading series” in hand and feels weakness. He raises to $10,300. Antill asks, “$10,300? I call.” I really liked his call. He wants more money in the pot. He thinks that with a raise he can scare the other players and that is the last thing he wants. He too can easily call because it’s unlikely anyone will call with pocket threes or fives for a straight and there are no flush draws either. The board is perfect for slowplaying against top pairs. The other two players fold. The pot is $32,200.

The turn is the 8s. Although Daniel still has top pair, he makes another amazing read on Antill and checks. He was thinking that if Antill called that much on the flop, that meant he had to hit. The board is so dry that Antill wouldn’t call with a single pair. Top pairs aren’t likely either because there’s a good chance Antill would have reraised them before the flop. Antilles then makes a surprising but great play. He feels soft on Daniel’s part but doesn’t want to scare him. He checks the turn hoping to win an extra bet on the river.

Now comes the interesting part. The 8h on the river gives Daniel two pair and Antill a full house. Daniel checks and Antill bets $15,000, a good bet. Showing off his uncanny reading ability, Daniel Negreanu makes the following comment right after the bet: “Make it $15,000 with pocket sixes or pocket fours. Which is it?” He tries to get information from Antill but this strategy doesn’t work. Daniel doesn’t understand why Antill checks the turn, but he confesses, “If you bet the turn, I’ll fold.” He ends his analysis with the following comment: “I’m going to fold with the second best hand.” Antill discards his hand and takes the pot.

As you can see, poker is not about luck at all. Daniel Negreanu is an incredible player with amazing reading skills. He knew when he had to bet, raise, check and fold.