Who's on Daniel Negreanu's WSOP Ban List?

Who's on Daniel Negreanu's WSOP Ban List?

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

As we all know, Daniel Negreanu is never short of an opinion or two and the latest target in his sights is players he thinks should be banned from competing at the World Series of Poker.

Writing on his Full Contact Poker blog, Daniel listed six potential candidates starting with Mansour Matloubi and Russ Hamilton.

“While this isn't a case that has been ruled on in the court of law, the evidence is overwhelmingly one-sided that at the very least, these two men were involved in cheating players out of millions,” Daniel wrote about the former WSOP champs adding that both should be barred from the World Series for life.

Next up comes former face of Full Tilt, Chris Ferguson. Daniel had some harsh words for the 2000 Main Event winner's handling for the FTP scandal and how he went missing in action.

“I'm not pleased by how he handled things, disappearing just never seems like the most responsible choice, but to my knowledge Chris has never cheated anyone at the poker table.”

He doesn't warrant being blackballed according to Daniel.

Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack are the next candidates for their exclusion based on their association with the ill-fated Epic Poker League.

“To this date, I don't believe that any of the players who participated have been reimbursed, and I don't see that ever happening,” Negreanu wrote but added, “As wrong as I think it is to not even acknowledge this debt or make any strides towards making the players whole, I still don't think it warrants a WSOP ban.”

Kid Poker keeps things in the family for his final candidate – Annie's brother Howard Lederer. Negreanu hasn't been shy about criticising the former Full Tilt man. Despite his involvement in the scandal, Daniel doesn't think his actions warrant a red card from the World Series.

“While you can like or dislike Howard Lederer as a person - that is your choice, of course, I think it's clear that he should have every right to play in WSOP events. Aside from players having been paid now, to my knowledge he has never cheated at poker, nor have there ever been rumors about him doing so.”

“I've had strong opinions on all of these people mentioned over the last 10-20 years, but if I'm being fair, outside of Russ Hamilton and Mansour Matloubi, I would have no problem playing the WSOP in 2015 against any of the other names mentioned.”



Tags: Daniel Negreanu, World Series of Poker