How Much Did Daniel Negreanu Lose Playing Live Poker in 2023?

Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu is one of the biggest winners in poker and over the last 25 years has won six WSOP bracelets, over $51 million in live tournaments alone and is the most recognizable player on the planet. Adored by millions, he updated his fans in a very personal video where he described 2023 as a losing year – to the tune of over $2.2 million.

How Much Did Kid Poker Lose at the Live Felt?

Astonishingly, the grand total of $2,228,174 went out of the Negreanu coffers in the last 12 months, telling fans that it was the “worst year that I’ve had” in strictly profit and loss terms. Over the past decade, Negreanu is still wildly ahead, ending 2023 with over $10.9 million than he started 2013. Those losses over the past 12 months still add up, however, and ‘DNegs’ is switching things up.

Over the course of 2024, Negreanu has pledged to put “quality over quantity” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The passionate GGPoker Global Poker Ambassador will still be playing plenty of live events but should he feel less than 100% or not in the right place to bring his ‘A Game’ then he’ll sit out a flight or two along the way.

Negreanu’s losess in 2023 amount to almost exactly his collected winnings from the previous year, with only 2020 not present on his cumulative list, since that year was almost totally written off due to COVID-19 and live venues largely remaining closed.

Here’s how we broke down the numbers:

@tight.poker

Daniel Negreanu has his WORST year of poker ever 🤯 What do you predict for 2024? #danielnegreanu #poker #pokertok

♬ original sound – Tight Poker

Why Did Negreanu Lose So Much Money in 2023?

Part of the answer as to why Negreanu lost over $2.2 million in 2023 is down to variance, of course. Poker tournaments are wild, and you can go a long time winning them or losing them without doing anything wrong. Negreanu is not one to blame luck, however, and puts his losses in 2023 down to a few reasons.

Firstly, Negreanu owns up to a little ‘Winners Tilt’ on the back of winning the Super High Roller Bowl in Las Vegas for $3.3 million in December of 2022. That saw him put in a tonne of volume in 2023 and he identified doing so as -EV for profitability. He also said that the edge in high roller games he used to have is now reduced. That smaller edge means that Negreanu needs to maintain his A-Game but get a little luckier in key spots during 2024.

In 2023, Negrean took on the WSOP in Las Vegas and WSOP Paradise. He’ll do so again, as well as suggesting that he’ll play online during the GGPoker major series and even fit in a visit to places like Jeju in South Korea.

What Will Change in 2024?

The key message Negreanu wants his fans to know is that although he is going to be playing plenty in 2024, he’s not going to phoning it in at the felt. His focus is on playing his absolute best every time he sits down at the poker table. With perhaps no other poker player earning money as a professional in the game attracting more attention that Negreanu in 2023, that won’t be easy.

Players and fans often expect to see Negreanu in any event that he could theoretically attend, and that pressure includes being front and center at the World Series in pursuit of the Player of the Year. According to DNegs, he won’t be playing nearly the same number of events as WSOP POY regulars such as Jesse Lonis and Shaun Deeb.

Despite trying to reduce his volume, Negreanu’s desperation to succeed and hunger for profit is evidently as high as ever. To underline this, he won the first major tournament of the year, the opening event of the PGT Last Chance festival, for $218,400. He took the next day off. In his own words, “Look out 2024, ‘cause DNegs is coming for you.”

Watch Negreanu’s full statement on his 2023 and 2024 right here: