Daniel Negreanu(pictured) has never been shy about speaking his mind, especially when he believes changes can be made to improve the tournament poker experience. Due to his high profile and outspoken views, the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) recently invited the six-time bracelet winner to speak at its industry summit in front of the organization’s Board of Directors and attending tournament directors from all over the world. Some attendees, however, were taken aback by what they felt was a condescending lecture by an arrogant Negreanu. Watch it.

In his 10-minute speech, Negreanu urged tournament directors to not view players as inmates and themselves as prison guards, but instead see them as customers. He feels that organizers should strike a balance between enforcing the rules and implementing a more nuanced warning system before doling out penalties.

He believes that certain rules, like being penalized for checking down the nuts in Omaha, should not be enforced so strictly. The rule’s intent is to ensure that players don’t collude by raising out opponents and then soft playing each other.

To illustrate his point, he gave the example of an inexperienced Omaha player who, not understanding the complexity of the game, goes to the river with two pair, but unknowingly makes a flush on the last card. That player might check down thinking his precarious hand is no good only to realize he had the nuts when pointed out by other players at the table.

Negreanu said that the self-inflicted punishment of losing value on the hand is penalty enough for someone who clearly did not check with the intention of colluding. Instead, he urged tournament directors to ask themselves, “How can I justify not giving this guy a penalty” before making their decision. According to Negreanu, dealers on European Poker Tour stops are the worst offenders, handing out penalties far too often and sometimes randomly.

The Canadian poker pro then turned his focus to the controversial “first card off the deck” rule, something Negreanu has spoken out against at length in the past. Previously, the rule stated that a player’s hand would be dead if he was not at the table by the time the last card was dealt. The new rule, which Negreanu says tries to fix a problem which doesn’t exist, calls for a player’s hand to be mucked if he is not at the table when the first card is dealt.

“I’ve never heard of players complaining [about the old rule]; is this really the issue,” he asked the board. “You really truly believe that [players] are using this tactic to walk behind players and get an unfair advantage?”

Negreanu put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Board member Neil Johnson, whom he said instated the rule without consulting with poker players. He argued that many of the dealers at the WSOP, WPT, and EPT blindly followed the rule with no exceptions.

For its part, the Board highlighted that the rules in question were actually worded in a way which allowed for dealers to make their own situation-dependent decisions. The panel said they were in agreement with Negreanu on improving the rules, but were certain that the aggressive penalties which the poker pro described were not common in events under their watch. The board also stated that it was not Johnson’s sole decision, as many tournament directors were involved in changing the rule.

The brash speech left a sour taste in some attendees’ mouths, one of whom posted a rebuttal on 2+2. “We were the ones lectured on customer service,” he said. “We were the ones equated to ‘wardens’ with our players being ‘prisoners.’ It was explained to us that, ‘it’s difficult to win if someone else can see your hole cards.’ Thanks for the heads-up, Daniel. Perhaps we will put that in next year’s addendum.”

After discussing his post with other poker players, however, he acknowledged that Negreanu was simply very passionate about the game and that his comments weren’t meant to be an attack on the integrity of the TDA.

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