ANOTHER YEAR WITH TEAM ONLINE

I am proud to announce that I have renewed with PokerStars to continue to be a Team Online Pro. I am really looking forward to remaining with PokerStars. I didn't even give it a second thought when they asked me to continue being a team online pro when my contract was about to expire. I have considered it a privilege and an honor to promote PokerStars in any way I can. I played on there for the vast majority of my poker throughout my career so it is great to be able to represent a company that I 100% believe in. I have had a few things come across my desk that folks have asked me to endorse and the bottom line is if I don't think it is a great product, I am not going to represent it, bottom line. So when you get literally your favorite poker room to ask you to promote them, it's like, "Duh." Anyway, thank you again PokerStars for this wonderful opportunity!

Cash games have gone really well this year so far, but I am still waiting for a tournament breakthrough. I have put myself in position late in so many big tournaments, it just feels like something great is about to happen. I just can't envision getting so deep in so many tournaments with so many chips and not following through for a win in one of them at some point. Hopefully I will save my run good for the SCOOP series on PokerStars that begins on May 8th. I am taking a vacation right before that trip to Bandon Dunes so I can recharge the batteries and get in a good frame of mind for the 2 week SCOOP tourney series. Fingers crossed I get me so me run good!

I have to applaud Daniel for taking on Isildur. That is one heck of a tough task that I know I sure want no part of. He is one heck of a heads up player and obviously has done well against some great players so for Daniel to take him on in back to back weekends was pretty cool. Daniel lost some money, but given how much work Isildur puts into his game and how little Daniel is able to focus on heads up online poker, I think Daniel did himself proud to win one of the 2 matches he played in, even though he was down money overall.

In fact, I have to applaud Daniel in general for his views on poker. He literally is the exact opposite reason of why I named my recent book Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth. One reason I named it after Phil is because I am tackling bad advice throughout the book and how to play correctly. And Phil not only dominated the list of pros giving bad advice, but he also still tries to claim he is the best player and how dare anyone question the champ? He is seemingly oblivious to the fact that may not even be a top 5,000 poker player anymore. Well, Daniel has been very vocal about how being involved in so many peripheral poker related things took his focus off his own game and a lot of people passed him up in the process.

But because Daniel is such a great and honest guy, he admitted this to himself and actually chose to seek out some of the better players, many of which were online players, and was open to listening to them. Not every mega star in every sport would be willing to admit something like this. But Daniel did and you have to give him a lot of credit for that.

Now I think it is safe to say to all of those people out there who were giving him a hard time after some of his public displays of less than great poker, Daniel IS BACK! I have observed him play a bit lately and he is really playing some top tier poker and that is apparent to many of the best players out there. He not only is playing really well, but as evidenced by his commentary at the PCA this year, he knows the "why" behind everything he is doing now which is maybe the biggest thing.

I am not going to make any bold predictions that 2011 will be a big year for Daniel because I think the primary factor involved in a big year for a tournament player is luck. Any tournament players' year is pretty much going to boil down to how he runs over about a 500 to 5,000 hand sample size. And not only how he runs once he gets late in an event, but also how the cooler hands are distributed (are you #1 in chips and run KK into AA against the person #2 in chips which devastates you, or a short stacker with 4 blinds left?). So in no way shape or form would I ever make any sort of predictions in a game so dominated by luck, but let's say this: If Daniel were primarily a cash game player where by year end you pretty much get out of poker what you put into it, I would say that he would almost undoubtedly have his best year of his career. He is playing the best poker I have ever seen him play and I am proud that the face of the company that I also represent is playing the kind of poker that is well deserving of the mantle he has earned.

Nice work Daniel!

Fuente: http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/team_pokerstars_online/2011/negreanus-back-and-im-still-here-079926.html