The feud between Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu has picked up steam again lately. And to be fair, most of the drama has come from Polk poking the bear.
A good amount of Polk’s rants of late have been directed at Negreanu. To his credit, Negreanu had let it go — until this week.
Negreanu’s latest poker podcast
On Tuesday, Negreanu released the latest Full Contact Poker Video Podcast, the first new episode in about a month. At first it seemed like Negreanu’s motivation to do the podcast was to address Mike Leah’s win at Fallsview Casino in Canada and to discuss the American Poker Awards.
However, it didn’t take long for the discussion to turn to Polk’s misrepresentation of Negreanu’s thoughts on rake at PokerStars. And once the topic shifted to the APA’s biggest influencer award, Negreanu really let loose.
Negreanu’s take: Polk distorting his comments on rake
It all started with a discussion about the American Poker Awards nominees for Poker Journalist of the Year. Negreanu brought up U.S. Poker’s Steve Ruddock and talked about the article Ruddock wrote about the rake discussion.
Negreanu made it very clear in Tuesday’s podcast that he takes issue with Polk saying he thinks “more rake is better.”
That is not what Negreanu said at all. As Ruddock explains in his article, “It’s important to look at Negreanu’s full comments, and not the shortened, bastardized version of them.”
Negreanu clarified his comments on the podcast. “I’m not pro-rake. That’s absurd.”
Polk has continued to build a case against Negreanu using parts of statements that sound like he supports more rake. The bottom line is Polk was disingenuous at best when ranting against Negreanu and his position on rake.
For the record, Negreanu wrote extensively about rake and what he believes on his blog in an article titled “My Thoughts on Rake.”
From the blog:
“I do not believe that raising the rake is good for poker. Rake increases take more money out of the game and benefit whoever is collecting the rake. That is my position on rake. Period”
Can we call this discussion done now? Please.
Negreanu’s take: What makes a good influencer
Negreanu’s true feelings about Polk came out when the discussion turned to the nominees for Poker’s Biggest Influencer.
The nominees are Cary Katz, Negreanu, Polk and Matt Savage.
Ever since the nominees were revealed, Negreanu has been trying to determine the criteria for the award out of sheer curiosity. You can find several discussions about it in his Twitter feed.
When talking about the list and their influence, Negreanu says, “As far as having a following goes – two people have one; two people don’t. As far as people being in the industry – two people are very well into the industry, one person spends time in the industry, and the other one spends time shitting on the industry.”
Negreanu makes a case for Polk winning based on social media influence. He gives Polk credit for creating content that attracts people to his channel and the game.
But if it’s about being a positive influence on poker in terms of building relationships and moving the game forward, Negreanu thinks Polk’s impact is a “net negative.”
“Most of what he does or he spends far too much time doing is creating drama by shitting on everybody else. His bread and butter is to create drama, attack people and fight people.”
Negreanu goes on to add that people in the media and other players could be afraid to confront Polk for fear of being attacked. “So, they don’t hold him accountable.”
It’s more likely Polk isn’t being confronted because the community sees what he’s doing for what it is – a way to get views and clicks. It’s the “nothing to see here, let’s move on” approach.
Yes, Polk has a fan base that enjoys his content. Admittedly, he can be quite entertaining. Lately, however, there has been a shift in his content that is more “Real Housewives” than anything else.
And maybe the poker community is beginning to lose interest.
Polk replies to Negreanu
While Polk didn’t specifically call out Negreanu in his reply, the timing certainly indicates it’s a reply to Negreanu.
I love how people defend themselves saying “Doug’s just in it for the views”
Warning people of a ponzi scheme?
Saying poker companies should respect their players?
Helping people avoid double paying for a scammy ICO?Should people act ethically? Naw, let’s blame someone else
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) February 21, 2018
Stay tuned, this saga has emergency broadcast written all over it.
The podcast and timestamps
The podcast is over an hour long and as you can imagine takes many twists and turns.
For instance, did you know there’s a game in Bobby’s Room called Doyle Says? They talk about it around 3:10.
Here’s the complete rundown of what’s included in the podcast.
- Eric Wasserson joins Negreanu as they discuss the recent action in Bobby’s Room (0:40)
- Doyle and Gordo’s Twitter feud (3:10)
- The US Poker Open(5:00)
- Mike Leah’s win (22:50)
- The American Poker Awards (36:00)
- Poker Journalist of the Year (40:15)
- My Thoughts on Rake (40:40)
- Industry Person of the Year (44:10)
- Breakout Player of the Year (47:30)
- Tournament Performance of the Year (49:10)
- Mid-Circuit of the Year (50:05)
- Event of the Year (50:30)
- Poker Moment of the Year (53:45)
- Poker Media Content of the Year (54:50)
- Poker Streamer of the Year (56:30)
- Broadcaster of the Year (58:40)
- Video Blogger of the Year (1:00:30)
- Podcast of the Year (1:03:15)
- Poker’s Biggest Influencer (1:06:55)
- Charity Tournaments (1:13:50)
- A few thoughts on Richard Seymour (1:14:45)
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