There are very few ongoing conflicts between poker players that have gotten as malicious and continued as long as the one between Kid Poker and the former Celebrity Apprentice contestant.
Although the feud has calmed down over the years, it seems very unlikely that either player will be sending Christmas cards to the other.
Here are some of the highlights, or maybe lowlights, from the decade-long battle between Negreanu and Duke.
1990s: First Contact
Back in the late ‘90s Daniel Negreanu was making his first trips to Las Vegas in an effort to make it as a professional poker player.
Over that time Negreanu was an active member of the rec.gambling.poker community, which included famous members such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Howard Lederer.
In 1999 Negreanu made a post that listed the 10 best Limit players in the world based on his experience in the $500/$1,000 game at Bellagio.
It was arguably the toughest game in the world at that point and listed Annie Duke as the sixth best player in the game and was extremely complimentary of her game at the time.
Sept. 9-18, 2002: Shots Are Fired
Daniel Negreanu starts making vague accusations about an “expert” that acts like a bully in the Bellagio game. At first the comments are about an anonymous person but Negreanu later starts adding “she” into the thread.
Howard Lederer, a member of the community and brother to Annie Duke, starts to realize who he is referring to.
September 27, 2002: Big Brother Steps in
Later in the month Howard Lederer posted an open letter to Daniel Negreanu accusing him of waging a public smear campaign against Annie Duke
Lederer focused on the following issues:
Negreanu constantly referring to Annie Duke as “Annie Puke” when she’s not at the table Negreanu’s “obsession” and obvious bias for Jennifer Harman over Duke in terms of successful female poker players Negreanu’s “desperate” need for public recognition Lederer also alleged that Negreanu called Annie Duke “digusting” and made fun of her wardrobe.Lederer finished letter by saying he never wants anything to do with the Canadian pro unless he’s trying to bust him at the poker table.
Sept. 28, 2002: You Wouldn’t Like Kid Poker When He’s Angry
The next day Daniel Negreanu posted a response and it’s safe to say he wasn’t very happy when he wrote it.
Negreanu got downright nasty as he said that Annie Duke went out of her way to ridicule him from the moment he met her when he was 22 years old at the 4 Queens. According to Negreanu, Duke referred to him as “cupboy” thanks to his habit of always having a Styrofoam water cup at the table and frequently criticized his play.
Negreanu called Duke a “horrible person” and maintained there were numerous players that felt the same way.
The post hit a low when Negreanu accused Duke of always wearing the same dirty clothes with no shoes in the casino. At one point he even said that no one wanted to sit in $2,000 chair that has urinated foot sweat soaked into it.
He also said that she had been causing harm to many players for years and it was time someone said something about it.
Feb. 19, 2003: “Annie Duke is a low life.”
A few months later Daniel Negreanu would yet again post on RGP about the various reasons he thinks Annie Duke is a low life.
He separated the post into seven points:
He accuses her of angle-shooting in Stud-8-or-Better games by not splitting the pot when she said she was going to. He says she habitually looks at the hands of players next to her and once swore on her kids that she didn’t look when she had, in fact, seen the cards. Negreanu referred to a three-handed satellite to the WSOP Main Event where she picked up an opponent’s cards from the muck and looked at them. She apparently said “Just checking” and threw the cards back into the muck. Negreanu accuses Duke of looking at his hole cards during a $300/$600 mix game. According to Negreanu, Duke used to steal other player’s seats. In the 1999 WSOP Main Event Negreanu claimed Annie Duke was involved in a hand where another player made a string bet. Another player at the table, Steve Kaufman, who wasn’t involved in the hand made the dealer aware of the string bet. Annie Duke lost it on Kaufman and said “This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in the a tournament.” Negreanu talked in detail about Duke treated him when they first met at the 4 Queens.Negreanu finished the post by saying that a couple years later he had started to win tournaments and all of a sudden was nice to him. Finally he apologizes to his friends who are also friends with Duke for the awkward position he has put them in.
2003-2005: The Professor and Kid Poker Make UpIt’s not exactly clear when it happened but apparently Howard Lederer and Daniel Negreanu patched things up enough so that they can tolerate each other at numerous poker tables around the world.
Negreanu still seems to have some strong feelings about Annie Duke, however.
Jan. 15, 2005: Well, this is Embarassing
The old aforementioned rec.gambling posts began to circulate on TwoPlusTwo poker forum and Daniel Negreanu posts a blog that says the posts were “nasty” and he was “embarrassed” by them.
Negreanu goes on to say that he always speaks his mind but it’s not his place to judge others.
He doesn’t go so far as to say he actually regretted making the posts but did say that they embarrassed him.
Sept 8, 2005: You Can Read About it in My Book
The autobiography Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker is released and a small portion speaks about Daniel Negreanu.
She refers to him as her “online tormenter.”
Throughout their entire feud Annie Duke rarely publically acknowledged Negreanu’s strong words for her.
July, 2010: Hello Neighbor!
Daniel Negreanu and Annie Duke are seated right next to each other in the tournament of champions. Despite the proximity and media attention, nothing of consequence happens. A couple weeks later however…
August, 2010: Did You Just Use the “C” Word?
In an interview with PokerPlayer.co.uk Daniel Negreanu allegedly called Annie Duke a C@#$ for belittling the ladies event.
Duke would later say she was shocked by the language and wrote an open letter to Daniel Negreanu’s online sponsor, PokerStars, demanding a reprimand.
PokerStars responded by saying they don’t support the use of derogatory or hurtful language ever.
Eventually Negreanu would say that he thought he was speaking off the record to the writer of the article and apologized to all women who were offended.
He never apologized directly to Annie Duke, however.
March, 2011: I Don’t Care for UB, Never Have
Throughout the late 2000s Daniel Negreanu is very outspoken in his contempt for UB Poker, a site where Annie Duke was heavily involved as a member of Team UB and the UB Cardroom Consultant.
UB was tarnished when a super-user was found to have cheated players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Duke finally left the site in early 2011.
Aug. 11, 2011: Your New Tour Sucks
Daniel Negreanu scribes a blog post titled “Why I Don’t Play the EPL” that blasts Annie Duke’s newest venture – the Epic Poker League.
Negreanu mentioned he did not think the tour would be a success without a legitimate source of revenue. Outside of online poker being legalized in the U.S. and the Epic Poker League starting a poker site, Negreanu couldn't see a way for the tour to be profitable.
He also mentioned the lack of big name old-school players like Phil Ivey, Chris Moneymaker, Scotty Nguyen and Doyle Brunson will seriously hurt any chance the tour has to succeed.
Annie Duke is the commissioner of the league and has yet to respond to any of Negreanu's recent criticism although she has mentioned on numerous occasions that the league has some very wealthy and committed investors.
The Future?
This is just a brief history of the war of words between the two well known poker pros. If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of the mud-slinging then you should check out this thread on TwoPlusTwo, which also has the majority of the old RGP posts.
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