I recently heard Daniel Negreanu offering advice to beginning poker players and it was so insightful I felt compelled to share it with you. In the interview, conducted back in his original poker stomping grounds of Ontario, Canada, Daniel reflected on his early days and first-ever trips to Las Vegas—where he quickly realized he was no longer the shark, but the mark.
Delusion Can Be Powerful
When asked what advice he would give his 17-year-old self at the start of his poker career, without hesitation he answered: “You’re going to make it”.
It might seem like an odd piece of advice at first, but when you imagine how much less stress you would feel if future you reassured you everything would turn out okay, it’s easy to see the value in Daniel’s advice.
Instead of spending valuable energy and attention on self-doubt and inner criticism, you could deploy it toward bettering yourself as a poker player (and human). How free would you feel if you were certain that you were exactly where you were supposed to be? And perhaps the more interesting question then is, what would happen if you chose to believe that to be true today?
No Regrets
When Daniel was asked about his biggest regrets in poker, he said he had none. He said it’s not that he didn’t make mistakes—finishing 11th in the WSOP Main Event after being overly aggressive with AKo was an example he gave of one—but that every moment of frustration and defeat taught him lessons he’s carried with him since.
Inexperienced poker players are destined to make one mistake after another, like all players before them have, but by using the lessons within those experiences thoughtfully, they can develop faster and more effectively. In treating each loss as an opportunity to grow, players like Daniel set themselves free of regret and self-blame and build up the skills and resilience necessary to survive such a complicated and high variance game.
A Lesson From The GOAT
Although the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) debate is one that not every poker player will agree on, for Daniel, there’s one man who stands above the rest: Phil Ivey.
According to Negreanu, what sets Ivey apart isn’t just his skill, but also his relentless focus. Daniel noted that while younger players are often on their phones or watching sports when they’re not in a hand, Ivey uses the power of his attention to its fullest by staying locked in with far more intensity than most of his opponents; every action at the table is logged and stored in his mind, waiting to be leveraged at just the right moment. Ivey’s dedication to watching each player’s reactions, movements, and tells down to the smallest detail, and understanding how to exploit his opponents using that information, gives him an incredible edge at the table.
And so, if you aspire to one day be playing with legends of the game like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey, remember their lessons: believe in your natural ability to get where you’re supposed to be, use your mistakes as tools for growth, and do it with presence and intention always. If you do that, maybe when your shot at greatness comes, you’ll be far enough along to fold the AK and win the Main Event!
Will Watson is a writer, poker player and enthusiastic student of the human mind.
Contact me at: willwatsonpoker@gmail.com
