Daniel Negreanu Breaks Silence VS Alan Keating

I'm not in a stage in my life now where I need to whip it out, you know, it's not a

thing you do sometimes.

What did Daniel Negreano mean by that? Well, it has to do with this tweet from over a month ago now where Alan Keating called him out saying that he'd love to see at real kid poker play the million dollar game, pointing out if he will play slow and tight and run from tough decisions like a lot of the big names. And how will those famous hand reading skills play when the pots a million dollars hard cash? Really? Some people can handle being in uncharted territory a million dollars deep, battling man to man, while others want to limit their exposure to a tournament, buy in and prefer the safe structure and predictable situations their comfort blanket short stacks provide. It's two different games, two different types of people, but he is invited. This wasn't just a challenge. It was provocative, condescending, and very clearly throwing shade time. Daniel did not respond. The Hustler Casino Live Million dollar game went forward without him. But later Daniel finally addressed it on his podcast with his wife Amanda. But the way he tiptoed around even saying Keating's name, you'd think it was cursed, like Voldemort from Harry Potter.

We do not speak his name. Actually. This is the only time I've even acknowledged it. And I like the guy, by the way.

I actually didn't want you to acknowledge.

No, I didn't. But I mean, I like him actually a lot. I think he's really cool. Who was the guy who, who put the, put the post out? I think he's really cool.

We can't say his name.

Well, Keating. Yeah. So if it's like me calling him out and say, you know what, I think it's time we played stud. A better heads up for a million dollars. Yeah, like what? He's like, well, I've never played State. I'm like, well so, you know, like, yeah, it's not my thing. I'm like, well, I don't, I don't know.

Along with this, Negreano points out the fact that kidding is only calling him out for attention.

When other people want to make a name for themselves, what they often do is they target you. They'll often tag me, they'll often want my. They'll often use me. They'll loop me into something to get more eyeballs on their stuff.

Daniel also reflects and points out the positive side of being called out, which I really, really like.

Thing is like, as I got older, you Know, I started to, like, take it as a sign of respect and honor.

Right.

Okay. So you were literally calling me out of all people. Why, why, why me? Right? Why me? Because you want to get the most amount of eyeballs on this.

Right? And finally, that he has been there and done that. When it comes to cash games, like

when I was young, people don't realize when I started in this business, I played cash games. Right. As my job, so that I could afford tournaments.

Yeah.

Because that was fun. So I would play noon to 8, 10, 20 limit, hold them. Then at night there'd be these $20 tournaments and I'd go play those and then, you know, rinse, repeat. I just loved it. You've got 30 years of me playing Deep Stack.

High stakes.

High Stakes Poke was a show that I'd buy in for a million all the time. And, you know, I got.

You know why they want you?

Of course I do, but I know why they call me. But I thought some of the stuff was like, wait a minute. You want to see how I would react? Because you've never seen it before. Like, what do you mean?

It helps them get eyes on them.

Of course, all of the points that Daniel makes are extremely valid. But as Doug Polk also points out, Daniel's past results in cash games has not been pretty.

Here for Dan Negrano, we can see his graph. It's not too pretty. Starting in 2007, he ended up losing about 2.7 million before clawing back some of those losses for a net result of -2 million.

Doug also floated a theory. Maybe Keating's tweet was a strategic setup, a way to build hype.

Here's my theory. This is already planned. In fact, Negron, who has already confirmed the game, and this is a way of building hype through Alan Keating. Now, I can't say that for sure. I don't know either of them that well, but I can say it feels a little weird for Alan to be tweeting like this. In my book, I think you can already count on Daniel being there. And if I'm wrong, I guess something happens because this is a YouTube video.

Doug was in fact wrong. Daniel was not there. And also nothing happened.

You know, even Doug did a video saying, like, oh, is he going to go? Is it? This is all planned and all. It's not. I'm not playing. So I'm saying, like, a lot of people think that I'm going to show up last minute.

Yeah. Here's a secret.

No, I'm not. Okay. Yeah, I'M not playing.

But to touch on his point about Keating's reasoning behind this, I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense with Keating getting so much attention recently and seemingly becoming a bigger name in poker as each month passes. Was it necessary? I do think Keating could have just as easily challenged Negreano in an inviting manner without the aggressive tone. But I also don't think it's all that big of a deal and in truth, the more drama the better when punching up. It is a great strategy and as we have recently seen with Peter he Keating is not one to shy away from rivalries. But taking on legend Daniel Negreano, that's quite the step up. Will Keating be what Doug Polk and Negreano once were only a few years ago now? I certainly hope so.

If the rake is too high, it's actually better.

If the pros are playing, it's actually better.

I've never said that in my life. I've never said that in my life. I've never said that in my life. Never said that in my life.

I think Keating is a stronger player than many casual viewers may think. So it would be amazing to see him take on a granu now when considering the other side. That is Daniel Negreano's reaction. It is worth noting how defensive it is. He really chose to say he is above playing in games like the ones Hustler Casino Live puts on.

First of all, I don't like to travel right we know that even though LA is not that far like to go there to play in a million dollar cash game. I don't give a about I know at all and like what am I trying to. So I guess ultimately and then I read the thing and it's like what

are you trying to prove?

What's going to Even as more recent just days ago describing the opponents Keating plays as quote blind guys. Which is honestly just pretty funny.

He I saw him call me out. It was kind of cute. And you know what I'd like to see him do? I'd like to see you, Alan, step out of your comfort zone and sit with Chidwick and Kuhn and Mateos and Bodjikowski and Martirosian and play cash with them one day instead of like you know, five random blind guys. You know, maybe, maybe let's just. I think that's the world wants to see you against really, really good players.

Good luck with that. Maybe Negreano is starting to play along at least a little bit. He could lean into Keating's trash talk instead of acting like it's beneath him as I think that's where his underlying beliefs are still at. Daniel actually responded to a comment on his podcast where someone calls HCL shady with a similar tone, saying, quote, I watched it last night and my goodness, that is not what top poker looks like to say the least. That is a pretty harsh review of the biggest poke stream on the planet. When I sat down with HCL owner Ryan Feldman, I asked him about dream guests he has yet to get. And D Nags was number one. You gotten everyone in poker except maybe. Yeah, I've kind of seen him reference, you know, I don't know. He, he watched Nick Airball once on, on Poker go on a poker go stream and he referenced like Nick Airball's laughing as like gaggling and he's like, oh, I watched the stream but I had to mute it because there was so much gag. So I mean it kind of makes me think like maybe he's turned off from like these types of live streams. I mean all the other high name pros have done it.

No, I, I think he'll come, but we're cool. Like we, I just talking to him the other day here and he was joking about the fact that he's like, you never invite me. Like, oh, okay, you know, but we always do.

But I.

For him, it's just like he lives in Vegas. Poker goes easy to go to. He's not a cash game guy. He likes tournaments. That's it. If he's going to travel, he just wants go terms. He doesn't like traveling in general. That's all it is. It's just like when you got that much money, it's like, what's the point? Right? So I, but I think he'll come eventually. I think we'll, we'll keep asking him and eventually he'll come.

Yeah, keep poking. Despite the cold shoulder, Negreano has appeared to give hcl. I do believe he will play on the show one day. But has Keating's call out helped or worsened those odds? The potential Negreano vs Keating matchup is certainly starting to get more attention as we see yet another big name in poker comment that is casino owner Rob Yong. Here he is responding to comments and voicing the interesting dynamic between the two. I'm pretty sure Daniel would be a massive winner in VIP cash games, but wouldn't get in many. And actually Alan would adjust versus better players. He gives a lot of action in VIP games because that's what he likes to do. Alan is a great player. In my opinion, here's where things get really interesting. Just recently when Poker News caught up with Keating at the WSOP and he revealed that he specifically entered the 25k Heads Up Championship because he saw Negreano's name on the list quote. All right, here's my chance to find him in his streets. Keating said, now that's just not trolling anymore. That's a man showing up on your turf. Keating also commented on Negrano's response to his call out quote. He offered me a horrible deal. I offered him a chance to play against guys like me, guys he says can hardly play poker. And he came back with an offer to play all the superstars. I don't really know what he is thinking, but it doesn't mean I'm afraid to come here and play them. With that, Keating is not backing down. Despite busting the heads up event early, he is confirmed he'll be playing the 250k and 100k high rollers this summer. Respect to Alan Keating for putting his money where his mouth is, stepping outside of his cash game street comfort zone and playing tournaments that in the past he has found to be extremely boring. So who is in the right here? Well, I don't think it's so simple. There is nuance. Daniel Negreano feels like he has done it all. He's got nothing left to prove. Alan Keating, on the other hand, wants to drag him back into the fire and see if he can still hang in today's deep stacked high stake cash games. One sees it as a pointless flex, the other sees it as unfinished business. Daniel did just nearly win his seventh WSOP bracelet, so maybe he is best served ignoring any noise like from Keating and focusing on his mission that is winning tournaments.

In 2002, 2003, I used to play in games or 4000, 8000 limit, right? 100k no limit, flips, whatever. Like you know you can million dollar claim. Exciting is that I did that when I was young.

I love that shit.

I did it because it was exciting back then, you know, you don't need to do it. No, I like to play tournaments. I enjoy it. Playing cash games, especially if you want to just play two card, no limit, hold', em, shoot me in the head.