The most famous Canadian face in poker is back in the news after making some controversial remarks towards fellow pro, and poker rival Annie Duke. Negreaneu and Duke have not liked each other for years and the banter has always gone back and forth between the two over things like table etiquette, hygiene and overall poker skill. Annie’s brother, Howard Lederer has even chimed in once in awhile to show support for his sister, but this feud doesn’t appear to be going anywhere now.
After a grinding few months at the WSOP, (where an awkward Daniel and Annie even sat next to each other at a table in the Tournament of Champions), Daniel is back on the poker scene and heading for Europe to play in a few of the EPT events overseas. It was here that he recently gave a controversial interview with a reporter and this whole situation flared up again between him and Duke.
When asked about the ladies event at the WSOP, Daniel aired out his grievances with the event including how men played in the event, and poker pro Shaun Deeb played wearing a dress; these were only the beginning though.
Never one to hesitate to lash out at Annie Duke, Daniel immediately went on to criticize her argument about wanting to eliminate the ladies event from the WSOP because she is all for equality in the poker world and there should be no need to have different “gender based” events. This was all fine with Daniel because although he disagreed, everyone is entitled to their opinion and that was Duke’s/.
What set this feud off again was Daniel commenting how Duke called herself the “best female poker player in the world” thus, contradicting her previous arguments for equality and wanting to speak for all female players in the world.
As Daniel continues to the reporter he says “how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You (Duke) want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.”
It was that vulgar use of language that got the poker community to notice and since, Poker Stars has issued a statement backing Daniel and his right to voice his own opinion, but did not approve of the language used to convey such a message. Other poker players cannot believe he said those words and have made comments about it via Twitter and other social media outlets.
Duke herself, has responded saying that she understands that Daniel has the right to say what he thinks but he has crossed the line by using such language.
Daniel has since apologized for the language, but the fierce rivalry between the two pros continues to burn and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.
