Negreanu’s Shock Admission: ‘I don't think I'm as good as these guys’

In what is probably one of the most unexpected admissions in poker, Daniel Negreanu has admitted he simply isn’t as good as the modern-day players he is up against, promising to work harder to get into ‘the top 20 by January 2018’.

The normally cocksure Canadian has spent all week battling the biggest names in the modern game and has come to the conclusion that his game just isn’t at the same level as the likes of Fedor Holz, Doug Polk, Tom Marchese and a host of other top-flight players…

…although he found no place for old friend and rival Phil Hellmuth in his list of players who he feels are ahead of him when it comes to modern poker strategy…

His surprising admission gained him a lot of respect, Kara Scott being one of the first to tweet her thoughts…

His week-long challenge at the Poker Masters hasn’t been disastrous, but it has shown Negreanu the gulf that exists when you don’t work on your game and rely on old methods to fight new methods.

He took on 20 side-bets at $50K apiece that he would don the Poker Masters Purple Jacket come Wednesday evening, but with only one final table to his name and no victories, his dream of $1million for defeating the younger generation has proved fruitless, although he also mentions that luck simply wasn’t on his side at critical moments…

For the man who once claimed he’d only need 2 weeks practice to take on the world’s best at online heads-up play – a claim which was jumped on by Doug Polk, resulting in a long-running feud between the pair – it’s a remarkable show of honesty and humility in a game which has precious little of it at times.

Phil Hellmuth, for example, didn’t take kindly to Negreanu pointing out that he was nowehere to be seen on any such list of greats…

…leading to a lengthy, amusing, argumentative but fun Twitter spat, still ongoing as I write…

…although plenty of well-known names were quick to stick up for Hellmuth…

…and pretty soon Phil was back to his usual ways, Fedor Holz among those he doesn’t yet fully respect as a great player, even though most of the world can see the young German understands and plays poker on a completely different level from 99.999% of players in the world.

As for Negreanu, his realisation that he’ll have to move up a gear or move on seems pretty set…

…and maybe, just maybe, if Daniel manages to raise his game to that of the youngsters it will spur big Phil into looking at his own play with a bit less ego – but truth be told it’s a big ego, so an even bigger maybe!