Daniel Negreanu Twitch
Would’ve made George Carlin blush
Daniel Negreanu has 'apologized' for comments made that resulted in a Twitch ban while Ian Steinman takes home the bracelet in the $400 No Limit Hold'em. Negreanu, as he does every day, began his World Series of Poker online stream at 6 pm PT on Monday. But he was forced to limit his viewership to YouTube and Periscope due to the Twitch ban.
Daniel Negreanu is in internet jail. On Sunday, Twitch suspended the Poker Hall of Famer’s channel following an incident during his Friday night stream in which he let loose with a barrage of expletives and threats on a viewer.
Negreanu was playing in the 2020 World Series of Poker Online Event #24: $400 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed and, as he has been doing each night, he live-streamed his Friday poker session. We do not have the text of exactly what was written, but a viewer allegedly said something in the chat about Negreanu’s wife, Amanda Leatherman.
What was said was apparently pretty bad, because it lit a fire under Negreanu. He immediately released the devil, uncorking a stream of fire that included more than one of the seven dirty words:
Hey, Tom Estrada, go f**k yourself, you piece of s**t,” he began.” “Block that c**k motherf*****g piece of s**t. F**k you, f**k you, f**k you in your ass. How about that? Okay, Tom Estrada, f**k you in your ass. Eat some of that, you piece of s**t. Come f*****g step to me and say that and I will knock you the f**k out. How about that?
WARNING: NSFW
He wasn’t quite done, adding, “I will break your f*****g teeth if you come step to me and I will feed ‘em to you anally.”
Alright, then.
Poker community takes exception
The poker community has been none too thrilled with Daniel Negreanu’s response to a viewer. While nobody would say that a viewer saying inappropriate things in chat, especially about the streamer’s family member, should be condoned, the general consensus is that Negreanu’s threats of violence, however hollow they might ring, are way over the line. And someone in Negreanu’s position as one of the most visible ambassadors of the game and front man for GGPoker, home of the next batch of WSOP Online events, should know better.
He also didn’t seem at all remorseful shortly thereafter, joking about the outburst on Twitter and creating a meme to celebrate it. Not that he was expected to be remorseful, necessarily – his leaning into the controversy simply took many by surprise.
Second meltdown this month
Gg Poker
This is the second time Negreanu has had a public display of real anger during the 2020 WSOP Online. Earlier this month, he suffered multiple connection problems while he was playing. His internet seemed to be fine, as his stream carried on, but his WSOP.com client disconnected from the server on more than one occasion.
Daniel Negreanu Twitch
An understandable problem, to be sure – I was on the horn with Xfinity today because of internet issues of my own, even after trying a different router and modem. Negreanu, though, was unable to hide his frustration (again, understandable with money on line), swearing up a storm and coming close to taking out his desk, chair, and laptop. It was somewhat entertaining, to be honest, as it was a bit awkward seeing someone who is normally pretty positive rage out like that.
Daniel Negreanu Threatens Live Stream Troll, Gets Banned From Twitch
Daniel Negreanu is one of the most popular pros in the poker world. He also can be one of the most controversial. Recently, Negreanu went on a tirade against a viewer on his Twitch channel. This sparked a ton of controversy amongst the poker community.
Twitch has now responded by banning Negreanu’s channel. How did Negreanu respond? With an “apology” that effectively continued poking fun at the original troll.
Negreanu Goes Off After Troll Attacks His Wife
The incident in question occurred on Friday while Negreanu was streaming the $400 NL Hold’em 8 Handed of the 2020 WSOP Online. A viewer named “Tom Estrada” apparently made a vulgar comment about Amanda Leatherman, Negreanu’s wife, and quickly deleted the comment.
Negreanu saw the comment and went off on the viewer. He told him to “F*** yourself” and then said that he would break his teeth and feed them to him anally. The tirade only lasted about 30 seconds, but the clip went viral in the poker community.
Of course, this tirade gave some the opportunity to unload on Negreanu. One such person is Doug Polk. Oh, you thought Polk was retired? He is. Polk retired from playing poker, but not from making Youtube videos, and definitely not from bashing on Negreanu. You can check out his latest troll post below.
Twitch Bans Negreanu’s Channel
Daniel Negreanu Stream
Following the tirade from Negreanu. Twitch has decided to ban Negreanu from the platform. At the moment, the ban is considered a permanent ban, but it is also very likely that the ban will be reversed.
The world found out about the ban from the Twitter channel StreamerBans. It contained a tag of #FirstBan, which probably indicates that the ban will be temporary.
❌ Twitch Partner 'DNegsPoker' (@RealKidPoker) has been banned! ❌https://t.co/By9qsjdHMn#twitch#ban#firstban#partner#twitchpartner 👨🏿🏭
— StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) July 27, 2020
Looking at other posts from this account, the length of bans vary but it appears that most face bans of up to two weeks. Odds are that Negreanu will face one of the longer bans just because some of his tweets were considered sexually charged and homophobic.
Negreanu Issues an “Apology”
On Monday, Negreanu made a statement during a stream of the $400 NL Hold’em Freezeout. It was clear Negreanu was not focused on the tournament as he busted quickly on a A-K flip. However, the expected statement came where he issued what was assumed to be an apology.
What ensued was clearly Negreanu continuing to troll “Tom Estrada” as he apologized to assuming that he could actually break his teeth or feed them to him anally. Obviously, no actual apology was given.
Instead, Negreanu told viewers his mindset for his tirade and explained that he lost his temper after a personal attack against his wife. The admission was about as genuine as you will get from a poker player and explained why he reacted the way he did. He then addressed some of the accusations that he was being homophobic and called it ”a stretch” to assume his comments were sexual in nature.
Negreanu then addressed the Twitch ban and admitted that he broke the TOS and accepts the punishment. He said that he thought a perm ban was a bit much, but will be fine regardless.
Looking at the situation as a whole, we can cut Negreanu some slack considering that this involved his wife. Most of us would react in similar fashion if our significant other was being attacked by some random troll on a Twitch stream.
With that said, Negreanu needs to work on his temper for the future. Outbursts like this do nothing to help his image or help grow the game of poker. Hopefully he will take this as a learning experience and work on reacting a bit calmer in the future, at least on stream. Rants are more the stuff of Twitter.