Friday, 29th March 2024 00:45
Home / Uncategorized / EPT9 Monaco Day 3: We’ll look at Daniel Negreanu’s underwear, but we won’t smell his pits

We are always grateful for the shout-outs we get from EPT Live. All of James Hartigan, Joe Stapleton and Matt Broughton continually drive traffic to our Blog and sometimes even imbue their appeals to viewers with an enthusiasm that hovers above contractual obligation. We love you too guys (and we don’t even have contracts!)

Sometimes, however, our friends write promissory notes on our behalf that are often pretty difficult to keep. A moment ago, for instance, Stapes told viewers that in the absence of Daniel Negreanu from the television table, viewers should follow our updates to get the latest on KidPoker. That much is true, but Stapleton also said we could even tell you “his general aroma”, and I am not sticking my nose in a poker player’s armpit for anybody. Not even Daniel Negreanu’s, who I imagine perspires a mixture of nectar, royal jelly and liquid gold.

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Daniel Negreanu: how do you smell

I can certainly tell you this much, however: there are no flies buzzing around KidPoker at the moment. I got pretty close and didn’t smell a thing. I can also give you this exclusive: Daniel Negreanu is wearing black Calvin Klein underwear. The waistband of his shorts is visible above his jeans as he leans forward pressed into a massage cushion, chair turned backwards in horse-jockey style, as a massage therapist beats out a painful refrain on his shoulders. Is that good enough?

OK, how about this. Negreanu is also sitting with about 350,000 chips, which right about average of the 42 players remaining. And although having Victor Ramdin and Jason Mercier to your immediate left is pretty terrible in a poker sense, it’s good for the sake of table banter. The three North Americans and Team PokerStars Pro colleagues are merrily chatting away. The topic of conversation started with the high roller event, and then moved on to talk of Negreanu attempting a weight gain bet, in a neat inversion of the usual approach to diet-changing-for-money in which poker players usually engage.

“Have you seen vegan doughnuts?” Negreanu asked Mercier. Mercier’s face knitted itself into the kind of scowl that yours would if you were asked if you’d seen a vegan doughnut. They then continued to talk about whether working out would help Negreanu put on weight or take it off. “Maybe if you wanted to turn sugar into muscle, something like that,” Mercier said.

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Jason Mercier: Did you ever see a vegan doughnut?

Mercier then showed an interest in the financial side of the bet, which prompted Negreanu to threaten getting “weight implants” to dissuade the notoriously sharky prop-bettor.

All of this went on as Negreanu found himself facing an under-the-gun opening bet from Didier Pitcho, one seat to his right. Negreanu called, as did German Dansker in the big blind, taking them to a flop of K♠ K♦ 2♣ . Dansker checked, Pitcho bet 14,000 and Negreanu was the only one to call. They went to a J♠ turn and Picho checked, allowing Negreanu to take the lead. He bet 31,000. Pitcho called.

The 8♥ came on the river and Pitcho checked again. Negreanu bet 58,000 but was then faced with a check-raise to 118,000. Negreanu was miffed. He picked up his cards and slapped them against one another, showing anyone behind (and probably Pitcho too) that he had Aâ™  K♣ for flopped trips that had turned into a very tough decision against the table’s tightest player and a river check-raise.

“I think this is a snap fold,” whispered one reporter, who had only previously seen Pitcho show down with the nuts. Even the massage therapist stopped in her tracks, a blob of cream on her forearm waiting to be rubbed somewhere intimate, but only after Negreanu had made his mind up. Eventually he talked through the options, ruling them all out, and calling. Pitcho also showed ace-king and they chopped it up.

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Freddy Deeb drops by for a sniff of Negreanu

There are, indeed, no flies on Negreanu today. He’s doing just fine, even if he’s not on the television table. Oh, and on the aroma thing, he recently tweeted this:

I guess that answers that question too.

A quick note on how to follow our coverage of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. Head to the main EPT Monaco page, where you will find hand-by-hand coverage from the tables in the panel at the top of the page, which also includes current chip counts and payouts as they happen.

Our feature coverage can be found below the panel, including the latest from the side events.

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