News: Negreanu to bet $1 million he can beat $25/$50 online?

In today's Daily Rewind we find out why Negreanu wants to bet $1 million that he can beat the toughest online games and review Newsweek's attack on poker.

Negreanu's $1 million wager

Daniel Negreanu has "zero doubt [he'd] be a winning player" if he played in some of the toughest cash games online and was allowed "two weeks' of work".

After making the claim in a recent Twitter debate, Negreanu was soon bombarded by a flock of naysayers who were sceptical about the Canadian's chances of success.

However, in typically confident fashion, Negreanu brushed off the negativity and offered to put his money where his mouth is.

In fact, if he is given two weeks to put in five hours of playing and four hours of studying each day, Negreanu confirmed that he would bet $1 million against willing to challenge him.

@TyRaeL_88 @danielmerrilees I couldn't be any more serious. 2 weeks. 5 hours playing, 4 hours studying numbers daily. Would bet a million.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) August 15, 2014

Pros react to Newsweek

Media outlets can sometimes be guilty of biased journalism and it seems as though Newsweek.com fell into this trap recently.

While we don't like to criticise other writers and their work, Leah McGrath Goodman's article, How Washington Opened the Floodgates to Online Poker, Dealing Parents a Bad Hand, certainly left a lot to be desired.

Of course, underage gambling is an issue we all want to tackle, but this piece seems to point the finger of blame squarely at the online poker industry.

Littered with inaccurate statements and deliberately evocative headers ("Slots for Tots"), the piece not only uses the terms "gambling" and "poker" interchangeably, but seems to apply general gambling addiction stats to poker specifically.

Since the piece went live a number of pros have lambasted its factual fallacies; however, for the sake of parity, here's a link to the piece so you can make your own judgement.

Newsweek's hatch job on poker will have impact, when that rag is read by a few 80-year-olds in dental offices 18 mos. from now @truth_eater

— Nolan Dalla (@nolandalla) August 14, 2014

Who's up for a @kickstarter to fund investigation into finding the obvious funding by Sheldon of the @Newsweek farce? I am #followthemoney

— John Caldwell (@ScheckTwit) August 14, 2014

When did Sheldon Adelson acquire Newsweek? RT How Washington Opened the Floodgates to Online Poker http://t.co/96VwzeIUri

— Adam Krejcik (@akrejcik) August 14, 2014

Saul's bad beat

While we don't know where Newsweek got its information from, we have a sneaky suspicion it could have been this CCTV footage from Saul Goodman's office.

Breaking Bad's legal eagle was recently captured asking his assistant to find him a new mobile poker app in favour of one that's "not rigged".

Of course, fans of Saul will appreciate that this is a piece of fiction and not something mainstream commentators should see as an accurate portrayal of what online poker is really like.

Question of the Day

"Could KidPoker really beat $25/$50 in the timeframe he suggested?"

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High Stakes Corner

'punting-peddler' moved to the top of the latest high stakes leaderboard after raking in $206,990 last night. After grinding through 2,177 hands, the online pro was able to edge ahead of Gus Hansen who enjoyed a rare day in the win column after banking $201,003.

Suffering at the hands of Hansen and 'punting-peddler' in the last 24 hours was Alexander Kostritsyn and Alex Luneau. Despite playing just over 1,000 between them, the two pros dropped more than $330,000 with Kostritsyn contributing $173,414 to that deficit.