Updated on 22 Feb 26 by

Hansen's $2 million high stakes swing

In today's Daily Rewind we review another big session for Gus Hansen and find out why staking cost Daniel Negreanu $1 million.

Poker staking revealed

negreanu
Poor investments for Daniel

When the Wall Street Journal runs a piece about poker it usually makes the general public take note and in the publication's latest report they've delved into the world of poker staking.

Although the concept of using backers isn't anything new to us as players, the article does have some interesting information about the intricacies of professional staking.

Amongst the various sources courted for information was Daniel Negreanu who explained that at the 2010 WSOP he invested $2 million in a group of 10 players.

On that occasion he lost $1 million, but explained that he always plays just "as hard" against people he stakes as any other player.

However, according to sports economist Andy Schwarz: "If you ask any economist whether identical players with identical cards would act the same if they own a piece of someone else or 0 percent, you'd get every economist to say they would act differently."

Also discussed in the article is staking site Imawhale, which is run by Steven Sigsbee. After leaving his career as a trader, Sigsbee invested in 35 players at the 2011 WSOP, including Brian Devonshire, whose 12th place exit personally cost him $1 million.

Russia's gambling plans

putin
Putin's gamble

Vladimir Putin is considering the idea of a "gambling zone" in Crimea according to a recent article on Bloomberg.com.

Following a meeting on March 21, it's been suggested by four unnamed sources that a new gambling infrastructure incorporating casinos and hotels in Crimea could be used as an economic stimulus.

At present Crimea has a $1.5 billion annual deficit and while Russia has pledged to cover this, some now feel a licence to offer gambling, which would include live poker games, could help reduce this debt.

At present gambling is illegal across Russia except for in four regions, but if the recent speculation is true then this number could increase and spawn a new wave of online players.

Katchalov gets his sweat on

Eugene Katchalov managed to claim his first Eureka Poker Tour title last week and courtesy of a new video we now know the secret to his success: exercise.

For a while now we've known of Katchalov's love of training and in this Rocky-style training montage we get to see just how he strengthens his raising arm.

Question of the Day

"Do you think the large staking operations are good for the poker economy?"

staking

A wild weekend of action at the virtual felt concluded yesterday with Gus Hansen raking in more than $500,000. Despite hitting a $1 million downswing late last week, Hansen was able to bank $546,423 on Sunday and top the daily leaderboard ahead of Douglas Polk.

As well as his Sunday success, Hansen has managed to scoop a further $330,000 earlier today which means he's now up almost $900,000 in the last 48 hours.

Falling to six-figure losses on Sunday were PokerStrategists Niklas 'ragen' Heinecker and Dan Junglemandan Cates. Leading the loss leaderboard at the close of play was 'ragen' with a $280,587 deficit while Cates ended the day with a $273,863 dent in his bankroll.

 
gus
Gus Hansen
Profit:$526,423
Douglas Polk$236,674
Viktor Blom$144,938
ragen
'ragen'
Loss:$280,587
'Junglemandan'$273,863
'Follow The Hawk'$206,203

Daily Signoff

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Daniel SmythDaniel Smyth has been working in the poker industry for six years as both a player and writer. He currently has a costly penchant for PLO and provides daily content for PokerStrategy.com. You can learn more about Daniel by clicking here.

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