Poker News

Daniel Negreanu has vowed to take revenge on Isildur1 Viktor Blom in the second match of their SuperStar Showdown on PokerStars this Sunday.

Kid Poker was destroyed by the 20-year-old last weekend, when the youngster took the maximum $150,000 off him in just four hours and 1,439 hands.

But Negreanu, 36, claims he has been practicing non-stop since his shocking defeat and will definitely be ready for the four-table, 2,500-hand match at $50/$100 No Limit in a few days.

Negreanu - who is 2nd in the all-time live poker money list - admits Isildur1 is the better online player.

But he also claims the Swede 'got inside his head' in the first clash and promised that wouldn't happen again.

Negreanu wrote in his Full Contact blog: "It's been about 24 hours, and I've definitely had time to reflect on the match, and also put in plenty of work since then.

"A few hours after playing Isildur1, I sat with Kangis for about 1200 hands and won back 35,000. I was also experimenting with a few things during the match, and that continued today when I woke up.

"I played a short 400 hand session vs DuggerGerngy winning $5000, then played 910 hands vs Justin Bonomo and picked up 45k. So since losing the $150k I clawed back $85k within 24 hours and hope to continue to improve/practice for a rematch vs Isildur Sunday."

He added: "My learning curve has been substantial and rapid. Since I tackled online poker at the start of 2010 my skill level both 6 max and heads up has improved dramatically.

"I've played less than 40,000 hands of $100-$200 6 max, $5-$10 HU, and $50-$100 HU combined. In the old days, that would have seemed like a ton of hands, but to the multi-tabling grinder this is just a weekend.

"I was so frustrated with how my match vs Isildur1 went. I knew I'd have to get lucky to win, as he is the more experienced player, but not only did he outplay me strategy wise, he got hit in the head with the deck too.

"I can't do much about the bad luck, but I can do something about him outplaying me. Whatever happens next Sunday, whether I win or lose, the fact that Isildur1 is the better player won't change.

"He is very tough to play against, and I got a lot of chuckles from various twitter followers who had the "fool proof" strategy to beat him! They were pretty funny, anything from, "Don't call his overbets" to "When he jams the turn he has a flush draw." It's just that simple I guess. Ha!

"Truth is, Isildur1 played very differently against me than what I expected. I wanted to go into the match fresh, without really listening to anyone else's view of how he played, but I obviously had heard things about his reputation. I wish I hadn't, because it did affect my decisions in certain situations.

"The reason he won, aside from the lucky all ins/coolers, was that he figured me out pretty quickly and developed a counter strategy that left him protected for the most part. By the time I was prepared to make some adjustments, the match was already essentially over.

"There is more to losing those big key pots in a match than most people realize. Normally, if I was just playing a cash game, if my opponent was on fire I'd just quit. Not because I believe in "luck" and that it's "not my day," but because when someone is winning they are at a psychological advantage which will allow them to play better.

"The true test of a poker player is how well he plays when things are going terribly.

"The best poker player in the world, Phil Ivey, routinely calls it quits early in sessions when things are going badly. It's the exact opposite of what 99% of poker players do!

"Most players chase, and just want to get 'unstuck,' which means they'll often play for days when they are losing. That's a terrible way to approach poker as a business and it's buried plenty of people."