Off Topic: Negreanu goes to GGPoker, Galfond’s HU Challenge and Laliberte’s green island

This week’s Off Topic sees Daniel Negreanu make a surprise announcement, while Phil Galfond reignites a durrrr challenge of sorts, in order to promote his poker room Run It Once. Meanwhile, Guy Laliberte has been living the high life on his private island.

Negreanu’s new alliance

Earlier this week, Daniel Negreanu’s Twitter feed broke a fascinating story which will have been expected by very few people.

The Canadian six-time bracelet winner ended a 12-year partnership with PokerStars before this summer’s WSOP, but it seems that he has now paired up with a new company. GGPoker are the fortunate beneficiaries of Negreanu’s endorsement and will be hoping their new ambassador’s huge profile will help their rapid growth to continue.

I have a BIG announcement to make! Details in the video below: pic.twitter.com/1xDTkglYmD

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) November 20, 2019

GGPoker’s rise has been remarkable, with the prize pool of its GGSeries having rocketed from $3 million to $50 million recently.

Negreanu cited this, along with the platform’s software and growth as reasons for his acceptance of the contract. This news brings a positive boost to Negreanu, which is very much needed after the recent WSOP Player of the Year debacle.

Galfond offers heads up challenge

Close friend of Galfond, Tom Dwan, once added to his notoriety by laying down a challenge to poker’s elite. While that challenge remains in limbo many years later, Phil Galfond has offered up one of his own which follows many of the same rules. Galfond’s blog outlined the challenge, which involves 50,000 hands at 100/200 stakes (preferably) or higher. The side bet on winning the challenge will be 3 to 1, on an amount totalling 10 buy ins at the chosen stakes.

The challenge was issued to those who coach PLO, although those who represent Galfond’s Run It Once website were excluded from the challenge.

Other stipulations included a strong preference for the match taking place on Run It Once, with live streams of the action being a possibility. Galfond claimed that, although PLO was his game of choice, he may accept offers of NLH too.

Laliberte living the high life

Guy Laliberte is mostly famous for two things. Being a billionaire founder of Cirque Du Soleil is the first and suffering catastrophic losses at the online poker tables is the second. Of course, Laliberte was also a key exponent of the $1 million Big One for One Drop and is a great supporter of good causes.

This week however, he has been hitting the headlines for very different reasons. He was detained last week in Tahiti and could face charges for illegally growing marijuana plants on his private island in the South Pacific.

The island, called Nukutepipi, falls under French Polynesian law which prohibits growing the plant. The Canadian is being investigated for drug trafficking but maintains the plants were purely for personal use. It is not yet known what charges Laliberte will face, if any, but he will certainly be able to afford some top-class legal representation despite his losses online.

Article by Craig Bradshaw