Any player on the professional circuit who walks around with a name like "Kid Poker" obviously has earned a fair amount of good natured-respect from both his fans and his competitors. Such is the case with Daniel Negreanu. Hailing from Toronto, he has consistently established himself as a wily, cunning and nearly impossible to predict competitor. In this way, he has racked up 3 World Series of Poker bracelets and a very impressive total of 18 money finishes so far.

But poker is far from the only interesting aspect of Daniel's life. In 1967, his parents moved from Canada to Romania. This uprooting and exposure to a foreign culture undoubtedly had a profound impact on Daniel. As he came close to graduating from high school, he took a radical turn by dropping out and beginning the life of a rounder. Anyone who has seen the Edward Norton/Matt Damon movie "Rounders" knows full well what such a life can entail. (And, for those who have not seen it yet, I highly recommend it. If nothing else, you'll have the pleasure of listening to the most overblown fake Russian accent in the history of cinema, delivered by the usually reliable John Malkovich.)

But back to Daniel. After getting his butt kicked hard by the Vegas poker circuit at the age of 21, he returned to Canada to re-focus on the essentials. In 1997 he won two events at the World Poker Finals held at Foxwoods Resort Casino and walked away with $133,600, not to mention a huge and badly needed dose of confidence. Once the winning streak started, Daniel showed no sign of stopping. He became the youngest World Series of Poker bracelet winner in history in 1998, when he won $169,460 in the $2,000 limit Texas Hold'em event.

Since that time he has continued to be a dominant force on the World Poker Tour as well as at the WSOP. Opponents are consistently staggered by how well he can read them, almost with a telepathic level of accuracy. Daniel has appeared at a whopping total of 11 final tables, more than proving his mettle again and again. When Steve Wynn opened his eponymous casino on the Vegas Strip, he tapped Daniel to be the official "poker ambassador." This lofty title required him to play for any stake in the poker room. However, it was a short assignment, as Daniel found that it cramped his style when it came to seeking outside money games. It seems even now, after achieving such meteoric levels of success, clearly there is a little bit of the rounder left in him.