The Daniel Negreanu Blowup at the 2009 WCOOP Main Event

As I was writing a report of Day 1 of the WCOOP Main Event on Pokerstars, I witnessed Daniel Negreanu completely donk off his entire $21,000+ stack in back-to-back hands. After seeing this blowup firsthand, I felt the need to write a separate article highlighting the events that led to the Daniel Negreanu blowup.

First off, everyone that knows Negreanu, knows that he’s a fan of “small ball” poker strategy. This approach to deep stack Texas Hold’em poker is to play smaller pots with a wide range of hands, then outplay your opponents after the flop. Daniel has had a lot of success with his approach. Throughout the first couple of hours of this year’s WCOOP I witnessed him using the strategy to take down a lot of small pots without committing many chips of his own.

Another factor was the fact that Daniel had been having problems with his Internet connection the entire tournament. After getting disconnected every few minutes for most of the tournament, players at the table and in chat started joking with him about buying a better connection.

Then, an update about changing computers set off an exchange that appeared to put Negreanu on tilt, which would lead to his 2012^th finish.

Player “Bootman” gives Daniel a dose of haterade
Here’s the exact chat that took place prior to Daniel blowing up and getting busted out of the WCOOP. Bootman was a spectator who I hadn’t seen post anything before this exchange started.

KidPoker: I switched comps but this one is tiny and hurts my eyes
Bootman (observer): drop the small ball, that will help
KidPoker: Bootman small ball rules
Bootman (observer): people will call 5x 6x raises, why not do that with aces, minraise no good
KidPoker: you are wrong. End story
Bootman (observer): tell that to my banker
KidPoker: I did, your bank(er) is cleaning my toilet right now
Bootman (observer): guess he is on community service at a local slum
KidPoker: no he said he can’t make dues with his (clients) so he had to pick up extra shifts
Bootman (observer): guess laundering all my big pot poker cash got him to the suburbs of canada
KidPoker: ya he retired on your $2400 deposit
Bootman (observer): your $2 tip won’t help either
(After moderator called twice)
Bootman (observer): see dani, don’t call your dad again
KidPoker: where you from child?
Bootman (observer): rich town, you don’t know it

That’s when the following hand took place between Negreanu and “H_Brasil”.
Daniel was in the big blind. Bizool raised to $300, H_Brasil called, KidPoker reraised to $1,300, both players called – pot was $4,040.

The flop came 6s, 4h, 2c. KidPoker checked, Bizrool bet $2,500, H_Brasil called, KidPoker raisesd to $7,000, Bizool folded and H_Brasil called – pot was $20,540.

The turn was Kd. KidPoker went all-in for $12,775, H_Brasil called. KidPoker showed 10h10c, H_Brasil showed 4d4s for a set. The river was the Jh and Daniel lost the $36,660 pot. He was down to $4,715 in chips at that point.

Bootman (observer): so much for small ball
KidPoker: bootman must be like 15 years old
Bootman (observer): blame it on me

Then the next hand Daniel shoves 97 offsuit after Nicole Katz raised to $300 with pocket nines. Nicole Katz called and Daniel busted out.

Daniel Negreanu is easily one of my top 3 favorite poker pros, but I can’t make sense of what I witnessed tonight. I was totally disappointed to see him blowup like that for no apparent reason.

What do you make of the Daniel Negreanu blowup at the 2009 WCOOP Main Event at Pokerstars?