Negreanu’s Higher Rake Argument Attracts Further Criticism

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Monday, February 26th, 2018 | Written by Shane Larson

During an interview on the Rikard Aberg Show in 2016, Daniel Negreanu expressed his support for PokerStars having increased its rake for online poker games, claiming that it would result in an improved and healthier playing environment for recreational players. Soon after, the Team PokerStars frontman was greeted by a deluge of shilling accusations on behalf of his sponsored employer by the poker community, with Doug Polk being one of his most notable detractors.

Fast forward to 2018, and the controversy shows no signs of abating, with Negreanu continuing to advocate his belief in the positive impact that higher rakeback can have on the industry, prompting a further backlash from players such as Polk, who recently referred to Negreanu as “a massive hypocrite” and “an embarrassment to the game”.

Negreanu’s Argument

According to the Negreanu’s argument, the best poker players in the world will still be good enough to continue making good profits from the game in spite of having to pay higher rakeback fees. Middle tier players who rely more on making an income through rakeback, on the other hand, are the group most likely to be negatively affected by the move and so be forced out of the game, thus improving the average experience of recreational players.

Furthermore, Negreanu even went so far as to claim that the old rakeback system employed by PokerStars severely acted against the interest of recreational players as they ended up paying more rake than winning players who had a lot of their money returned to them through Supernova and Supernova Elite programs.

Polk Calls Negreanu a Hypocrite

Negreanu is one of the most adept and influential players in the game, and therefore his thoughts and opinions obviously carry a lot of weight in the industry. As the main sponsored pro of PokerStars, however, he is often accused of putting the interest of his site above that of the poker playing community, which has subsequently opened him up to accusations of hypocrisy.

Online poker pro and social media sensation Doug Polk is also one of the most outspoken players on the circuit, and in a recent podcast with Joe Ingram the 5-times WSOP bracelet winner left Negreanu in no doubt as to his thoughts on the Hall of Famer’s assertion. Polk accused Negreanu of being a hypocrite and an embarrassment to the game of poker, and elaborating further stated:

“Dude, honestly, shut the f*ck up, honestly. It’s so absurd. He’s getting paid millions of dollars to be a hypocrite and tell you why taking your money is good and why he should take more of your money, and then also trying to be the good guy. You don’t get to be both.”

Backlash

Polk’s assessment regarding Negreanu has divided public opinion, with members of the poker playing community lining up on both sides of the debate. In the meantime, Negreanu has since appeared on his own YouTube channel alongside Eric Wasserson in which they discussed the latest American Poker Awards nominees, while taking the opportunity to fire broadsides at both Joey Ingram and Polk.

Negreanu started the discussion by refuting Ingram’s claim that he only did things within the poker industry that he expected to receive payment for, stating instead that has a long history of working with WSOP officials to improve the tournament series for players, despite receiving no compensation.

Negreanu’s harshest words, however, were reserved for Polk, and when discussing nominees for ‘Poker’s Biggest Influencer’, he asserted that Polk spent more time promoting cryptocurrencies than he did the game of poker, before adding:

“As far as I’m concerned he’s a net negative because most of what he does is looking to create drama by shitting on everybody else.. That’s kinda shitty, to shit on people just to get views.”

Phil Galfond Enters Debate

Recently, Phil Galfond, online poker legend and one of the game’s most respected pros, entered the rakeback discussion in a piece he published on his blog entitled “The Discussion on Higher Rake that Nobody is Having”. According to Galfond, Negreanu and PokerStars are seeking to turn the world’s biggest poker site into a huge “poker-themed” casino in which recreational players are saddled with higher rake games, while true poker enthusiasts are penalized and left with no place to play.

He then warned that this could lead to middle and higher tier players looking elsewhere for their poker actions, such as at rival site partypoker or Phil Galfond’s ‘Run It Once Poker’ site which is still to launch.

“I won’t be surprised in the slightest if Pokerstars does better and better as they introduce more fast, exciting, low edge, high rake games. But if the games are unbeatable, it’s going push out the hordes of people who love the game for the same reasons you and I do.

There will always be millions of us looking to play true, authentic, beatable poker. If Pokerstars ceases to meet that demand, somebody will,” explained Galfond in his blog post.