Daniel Negreanu Total Poker Winnings

If you’re considering becoming a professional poker player or are just love watching pros win stacks of cash, let Daniel Negreanu give you a reality check.

The legendary poker pro wrote a year-end blog with his results from 2017, revealing he had won over $2.7 million last year. That seems like a ton of money, right?

Not quite, per Negreanu:

Playing heads-up cash games online for hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t something most poker players will ever experience. However, poker fans recently got a taste of this action with Daniel Negreanu squaring off against Doug Polk at WSOP.com. Beyond the play on the felt and results, there was plenty of action behind the scenes as well. Career Earnings: Over $200 Million. Is Dan Bilzerian more successful at poker.

Well, the truth is, if a player plays the full high roller schedule and cashes for $2 million, they are all but certain to have had a losing year, and that’s before expenses.

I felt like I had a decent year in terms of results, but when you break down the numbers into an actual profit vs loss, I essentially broke even!

Buyins: $2,874,164
Payouts:$2,792,104
Profit: -$86,140

Crazy, right? His $2.7 million didn’t even cover all of his buy-ins into events. Although he said most players don’t fund everything by themselves, he does pay his own way into events despite sponsorship deals.

Negreanu also broke down how he did this year in terms of cashing out in tournaments: He said he played in 71 events and cashed out in JUST 21 OF THEM! The previous year he went 10-for-49 and 11-for-49 in 2015. Yet when he tallied up his five-year total, he went 68-for-291 and made an $8 million-plus profit.

What does all that mean? If you can stomach all the losses and balance them with occasionally cashing in, all while affording the expenses, you could be a pro.

Negreanu Poker

Read the full post here.