Poker Legend Danielrummy nabob new version Negreanu's Big 2025 WSOP Goals

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook May 20,rummy nabob new version 20254 min read

Table Of Contents

• Poker Legend's Idea of a 'Good Time'
• Can Negreanu Win 2025 WSOP Player of the Year?

Daniel Negreanu will enter the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) "with a little bit of a different attitude" in his first year of Seniors Event eligibility, GGPoker's top ambassador told PokerNews.

The 50-year-old is coming off three straight losing summers. But that doesn't concern him, especially considering he ended an 11-year bracelet drought in 2024 when he took down the prestigious $50,000 Poker Players Championship. He's more focused on having fun and playing sound poker than the results.

"The World Series for me, it's not going to be about results that much, because that's luck, right," Negreanu explained. "Luck is going to play into the results. For me, I want to have a good time."

Poker Legend's Idea of a 'Good Time'

Negreanu's 2025 WSOP schedule includes 53 events and just two days away from the Horseshoe, similar to previous years. But he'll be doing some things a bit differently this summer.

"This year, I'm going in with a little bit of a different attitude," Negreanu said. "I'm going to have some wine. I don't normally do that, but I've been ejoying that. Some days, I might golf with the old guys at the club at 9:30 and then go play a little later. I want to have a well-rounded series, because I think it's summer camp for all of us poker players. I want to have a great fun summer."

"But, with that, everything is a lot more fun when you win, so I expect to have some bracelet wins, some deep runs. But I don't want it to be a case where I'm ever there and I don't want to be there."

Negreanu, along with Phil Hellmuth, has been a staple at the WSOP annually for multiple decades, grinding a full slate of events. It doesn't appear he's any less excited for the start of the Series than he was during his "Kid Poker" days.

"I was talking to Josh Arieh about this, and we both do," Negreanu said when asked if he still gets just as excited for the WSOP as he did 20 years ago. "It's crazy, after all these years, you know, in the couple weeks before the Series, you've got the $25k Fantasy Draft, just the excitement of the summer and what could be.”

"Everyone that plays the Series like we do, you're so fresh and ready, and then like 3-4 weeks in, somebody looks at you the wrong way, and you're like, 'what are you looking at, you a*****e?"

Can Negreanu Win 2025 WSOP Player of the Year?

Negreanu always appears on just about every short list of players likely to contend for WSOP Player of the Year during pre-series predictions. He's a seven-time bracelet winner with $23 million in WSOP earnings, and he won the award in 2004 and 2013 (and for a brief moment in 2019). But does he consider himself to be among the POY favorites in 2025?

"I think my odds are very, very good, because the way that they changed it, it's only the top 10 results that count, so it's not about Shaun Deeb playing four tournaments at once, dropping stacks and wasting equity," Negreanu said, referring to the POY scoring system changes enacted in 2024. "It's really just about quality, you know."

Scott Seiver, who is up for Poker Hall of Fame this year, earned the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year award after winning three bracelets. Negreanu didn't crack the top 10 and hasn't been a factor in the race late in the summer the past three years.

The current WSOP Player of the Year scoring system only takes into account a player's 10 best results. So, racking up a bunch of min-cashes, which helped players win the award in previous years, no longer matters in the POY race. It's now all about, as Negreanu explained, quality (i.e. reaching final tables and winning bracelets).

Negreanu won a bracelet last summer, but that was his only final table appearance. To win Player of the Year in 2025, he'll need a few more deep runs to compete with Seiver, Deeb, and the other crushers chasing one of poker's most prestigious awards.

Contending for POY would do wonders for the team that drafts Negreanu in the 25k Fantasy Draft, which takes place May 27. But don't expect the GGPoker ambassador to draft himself, although he wouldn't give away any hints as to specific players he's interested in drafting.

"I will say, my strategy this year, I won't be going after big hitters (in the Fantasy Draft)," Negreanu claims.

The "big hitters" he's referring to includes himself, Deeb, and a few others who go for the highest bids annually in the 25k Fantasy Draft. Those players are risky draft picks because if they don't crush it at the WSOP, it's tough for the team that drafted them to have any shot of winning.

Negreanu is always one of the highest bids in the $25,000 buy-in draft. But he hasn't been drafted by a team that cashed since 2022. A few deep runs this summer, perhaps even one in his first Seniors Event, would give the team that drafts him some value.

The 2025 World Series of Poker, which includes 100 gold bracelet events, kicks off May 27 at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

Daniel Negreanu Wins $50K Poker Players Championship