On a recent PokerOrg interview, Daniel told the community what ignited the recent Twitter/X skirmishes with Berkey, but also gave plenty of poker advice (as he usually does).
Keiro and Daniel connected remotely, though both were in Vegas at the time. Negreanu spoke for 20 minutes, in his trademark GGPoker hoodie and video quality you wouldn't expect from a man with over $52 million in live tournament winnings.
– (Keiro) Alright, folks, I'm here with the legendary Kid Poker himself, Daniel Negreanu. Daniel, how are you?
– (Daniel Negreanu) I'm doing well, how about yourself?
– I'm great, man. It's a rainy and gloomy day out in Vegas, so I'm staying in my hotel room. I figured it was a good time to chat with one of the legends.
So, diving right in, you and Matt Berkey have been going at it. We want to get straight into it. What's your take on the situation, and what's your side of the story?
– Well, it's actually quite simple.
The 'Berkey Beef' started when Jonathan Little posted some generic advice.
Berkey took issue with it, and instead of simply disagreeing, he said something to the effect of, "Anyone who thinks this has a seat in my game, and I'll give them 3% back."
Here's Berkey's tweet:
To translate for everyone, the reason you'd offer this is because you think the person's a bad poker player, or you're mocking them, right? This isn't the first time he's picked on Jonathan Little, and I've noticed that. So, I stood up for Jonathan.
Then, Berkey's arrogance and condescension came out, which triggered mine because that's my go-to as well.
It became a back-and-forth about the nitty-gritty of a hand, a contest of who could be more arrogant and condescending in a short period. I think we both did a good job at peak arrogance.
I certainly had my fun with it for the day.
I acknowledge that arrogance is one of my traits, a character flaw. When people come at me, I usually respond with some arrogance.
Berkey seems to think that me saying this is like getting myself off the hook, but it's just being self-aware. I've never heard him acknowledge that the biggest reason he's at the forefront of every beef isn't because of what he's trying to accomplish; it's the way he chooses to do it, which often comes from a place of arrogance and condescension. Nobody likes that. When I do it, nobody likes it, and I don't like it when he does it either.
So, it boils down to him picking on Jonathan Little, and I stood up for him.
Then it devolved into an ugly back-and-forth that I played just as much a role in as he did.
– We all saw the back-and-forth, and challenges were issued. Do you think this will be resolved on the felt, or are we going to continue with the keyboard battle?
– I think it'll go away.
Personally, I don't think it's going to build into anything. I have no interest in it. Berkey's been Berkey for a long time. I've always gotten along fine with him. He's poked fun at me before, mocked me from an arrogant, know-it-all position on stuff he doesn't even play, but it never bothered me. That's part of his shtick, and I left it alone. But I was sick of just watching him do it to Jonathan Little, so I said something. That's really the end of it. I don't have any personal goals to stand up to this guy.
They've built an entire game around people who have beefs with him. This is sort of his thing now. He gets into beefs with people.
I haven't been in a beef with anybody since probably Doug Polk many years ago, and we've squashed that since. I stayed out of all the back-and-forth with Nick Vertucci, dmoongirl, with the laundry list of people that have gone back and forth.
I just left myself out of it. I jumped in for a minute, and it was a reminder of why it's not a good idea to get into it all the time because it's just a waste of time.
I just needed a day to waste some time.
– It's fair. A lot of people have been speculating that these poker beefs are produced so courses can be sold and links can be attached in the reply section. What's your take?
– Well, a lot of people have said, "You're just going to give him more clicks and more attention for his business."
Why do I care? That has no effect on my life. Good for you, buddy. You make a living. Why should I be concerned if he's going to make money? It doesn't affect my bottom line at all. It is what it is. So, yes, I'm sure people have used these situations in the past to create attention for themselves. Otherwise, they wouldn't specifically tag you in a post.
Here's the funny part: he tags me in a post that's selling a mental health course. I respond, which is exactly what the point of tagging me was.
I respond by saying, "Or you could look at this list of crushers." I don't even mention this guy. I don't know him, his deal, or what he's about. But here's the ironic part: you tagged me with his name and the course.
I responded, and now I'm accused of dragging him into it when I was the one tagged. How do you get there?
It's mental gymnastics.
– I think it's fair to say, Daniel, that a lot of these beefs are surface level, not as serious as most people would take them.
We did bring up Doug Polk, and you guys had your issues in the past, which are fairly resolved. You guys did play heads-up. What's the likelihood that we can see you and Berkey play heads-up?
– Listen, I don't really care, honestly. For him, it would be beneficial if that thing happens.
For me, it's negligible. It has no effect on my life. I don't care about the money. The question is, would I do it for sport, for everybody? 'Oh, you gotta play him.' If I had to play him, I'd play him. It's not like I'd be all that concerned. I mean, I'm playing Berkey, right? I had to play Doug Polk, who is the best. That was a challenge. I knew I'd be a significant underdog.
But we're not talking about Doug Polk; we're talking about Berkey. What am I worried about? Actually, there's more to lose in that one because if you lose to Doug Polk, it's like, 'Okay, well, you were supposed to lose.' But there's more pressure because if you lose to Berkey bro...
– I think I saw the challenge was if you lost, you would have to take a SolveForWhy course.
– Listen, I'm sure they've got good content. It's fine. I just take issue with this: Jonathan Little has been the most successful person in this space by a long shot. He's brought so many people into the game, and they love his content. So why keep attacking the guy?
Here's what you should have done: befriend Jonathan and say, 'Listen, can you help me with my business so that I can be successful, so that I don't have to be bought out to stay afloat, so that I can learn what you did with the algorithms and how you've been so successful?'
Instead of doing that, you're constantly attacking your competitor as a way of what, making yourself look smarter? Is that the goal? There's no reason for it. I don't like when anybody does it.
When Dominic Nitsche was doing it for a while, I messaged him privately. He said, 'I know this stuff works, buddy, but you got to sleep at night.' I just didn't like it. Jonathan has never done this to anybody. He does his stuff, he does his things. I just didn't feel like he deserved it. Nobody was sticking up for him, so I decided to do so.
– You know, I could take that, both sides.
- In 2024, you said, 'Less volume, better quality,' in a recent discussion. Can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Well, I've got to say, I'm pretty proud of myself in 2024 for sticking to my guns.
I've realized that as you get older, and money isn't the driving factor for why I play, I have to really want to be there to perform my best.
I also need to be well-rested. I always had FOMO—if there was a tournament, I'd play it. If I was at a series, I'd go. Now, I'm actually listening to my body and my mind more.
After winning the very first event of the year, I took the rest of the week off.
Then, I had a second-place finish in my next event. During this PokerGO Cup, I decided to skip the $5K right off the bat. I wanted to rest up for the tens. After a painful bubble the previous night, instead of just going to play the $25K as I normally would, I said to myself, "I don't feel physically and mentally ready to play. I'm not going to play."
So, going forward in 2024, I'm really going to focus on playing my A-game more often, bringing my B-game more often, and avoiding the F-level performances. If I'm mentally at a D or an F, I'm just not going to show.
– They talked about it on the show last night—Patrick Antonius and a few other players were discussing how Phil Ivey, in his prime, was never sleeping.
Now that he's reached a point where he's won so much, he's become the biggest sleeper. He rests the most, and when you do see him out, he's in prime form.
When you're well-rested, you get the best version of yourself.
– I'll tell you what else, too—I love poker. I enjoy playing the game, and I love feeling like I'm loving it. When I get to the point where I'm thinking, "I don't really feel like being here right now," then I don't play that day. If you show up too often when you don't feel like it, you become complacent, and I don't ever want to let myself get there.
I want to show up excited to play, and that's what I'm focusing on in 2024. For the World Series, my plan is to focus on all the big events and be ready and raring to go for those.
Content Creation and Life in 2024
– What can you expect from Daniel Negreanu, the content creator, in 2024?
– I'll be doing the vlogs at the World Series of Poker, as I do every year. This year, because I'm only going to play the big events, so I'll probably take some days off. That means instead of having a vlog every single day, there might be a few days off here and there, which is fine.
Instead of filming on my day off, I'm going to take a real day off—no content creation. Just lay on the couch, watch Rocky with the puppies, hang out with the wife, and feel recharged.
I'm not going to be spending any time in the $300 Gladiator with 24,000 people, down to the last 100. That was the most draining event I've played in years. It was very mentally draining because, for the $300 players, seeing me at the table is kind of a big deal for them. I didn't really have a lot of time to just sit back and chill; there was always someone engaging with me, so it was just mentally draining.
Here's Daniel's video recap immediately after the stressful session.
Freerolls are the least mentally draining and financially draining way to take a shot at real money prize pools. Learn which tournaments give you free entry tickets by checking the schedule below.
– On a side note, while I'm on downtime, hanging out at the house with the beautiful dogs, beautiful wife, are you watching any other content creators?
– To be honest with you, I don't really watch much content. However, I forgot to mention his name on the crusher list, but Fedor Holz is someone whose videos I do watch. They're free on YouTube, and I just like the way his brain works. I appreciate how he teaches and thinks, so sometimes I'll watch some of his stuff.
I do plan on taking in some content again. I'm not into vlogs or anything like that, but I think it's worthwhile for me to listen, especially when my peers create content. It helps me understand how they think.
There are a lot of guys I play with in the high stakes who offer courses, so I think it gives me an edge to watch them. I haven't done that yet, but I'm going to take a week off here and do nothing but probably get into watching some PokerGO content, some Triton stuff, and then maybe some specific courses.
GTO Bots and Balance
– Viffer said last night, "If you take a GTO bot and sit him at a table with eight of the best players, chances are that robot is the first one out.
– Actually, I don't know if I agree with that. You're talking about eight good players, right? They're all going to be playing pretty theoretically close.
Here's what I would bet: you take the bot and play a 1/3 game, put Foxen in the game with six randoms, and put the bot in with six randoms.
I'll take Foxen all day, twice on Sunday.
I'll take Chance Kornuth.
I'll take Fedor Holz.
I'll take these guys who understand how to exploit.
Listen, poker's never going to be fully solved, especially live poker. So, this idea that you have to be balanced is foolish. If you're randomizing in live tournaments, you are using an inferior strategy.
Jesse Lonis said something at the table the other day that had me dying. (See below)
– It's like the statement, "ICM is for poor people."
– If there's a gun to your head and you have to make a poker decision, are you going to make the decision based on what you think is best, or are you going to roll and look at the clock and go, "Well, I've got to keep balanced here"?
No, if your life depends on it, what are you going to do?
You're going to try to use your brain and think about what is the best play for this moment. "Oh, but then you might be exploitable."
Okay, come try it. My life on the line, I'm going with what I know.
21 Savage Scams Adin Ross with a Marked Deck?
– Did you see the 21 Savage and Aiden Ross debacle? It was on Twitter, making the rounds.
– I did watch the clip. It's crazy, right? On a live stream, you're going to put marked cards in the deck?
It's crazy.
– I know you've probably seen this off-camera. You know these things exist, but for a younger generation, hundreds of thousands of people are watching. What are your thoughts?
– Well, let me tell you something interesting. I narrated, I just did the audio for an audiobook that's going to come out called "Confessions of a Crossroads Gambler" about a man who was a cheat from the '30s, all the way up until he ended up getting hired by Jack Binion to be security for the Binion's Horseshoe because he could spot a cheat.
His whole life, he found cheaters and figured out how to cheat the cheats, right?
I guess ultimately, what it boils down to is this, right?
Any game, whether it's poker or the market or whatever, there's always going to be nefarious people looking to cheat. So, it's a cat-and-mouse game, right? There are cheaters trying to cheat, and then there are the police, the regulators, and everybody trying to catch them.
That was true 100 years ago; it's true today. They're more sophisticated now, especially when you fast forward to even online poker, right? Where you have, there's always going to be people trying to do stuff, and it's always going to be upon the organization, like the providers, to do their best to catch them.
It's going to be a cat-and-mouse game forever.
It's not surprising to see, in that environment, some people are just cut from a different cloth, you know? I don't know if it's sociopathy or whatever, where, you know, ethics and morals, they have their own version of them, you know? And they think that cheating is okay.
I don't—I've never cheated. I don't cheat in poker. Never have, never would want to because, for me, again, like I said, it was never about the money, you know?
What's the point of having a trophy if you didn't earn it?
– Thank you, Daniel Negreanu, for your time. We appreciate you.
