600,000 dollars net winnings - that is the amount Daniel Negreanu says he earned with tournament poker in 2021. The GGPoker brand ambassador published his balance sheet for the past year on Twitter:
Final tally 2021:
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) December 24, 2021
Events 97
Cashes 30
Buyins $2,596,373
Cashouts $3,180,396
Avg Buy in $26,766
Profit $584,023
1/2
A remarkable profit of 3.2 million dollars contrasts with costs of almost 2.6 million dollars. This corresponds to a return on investment of around 22.5%.
Daniel Negreanu is one of the few professionals who openly reports his profits and losses every year. If you only look at the winnings of poker players shown in tournament statistics, you get a very false picture of how much tournament players really win or lose. If you look at Daniel Negreanu's prize money alone, for example, it will show a total of almost 29 million dollars won for the years 2013 to 2021. However, this is offset by costs for buy-ins of over 17 million dollars.
Since 2013, Daniel Negreanu has announced his net balance at the end of the year. This is how Negreanu's total gross and net profits have developed since 2013:
These are his gross and net profits in all years since 2013:
| Year | Net Winnings | Gross Winnings |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $1,963,500 | $3,208,630 |
| 2014 | $7,100,164 | $10,284,118 |
| 2015 | $952,920 | $2,482,489 |
| 2016 | -$1,246,693 | $302,452 |
| 2017 | -$86,140 | $2,700,645 |
| 2018 | $1,412,053 | $4,510,383 |
| 2019 | $831,891 | $2,223,111 |
| 2021 | $584,023 | $3,180,396 |
(*): Negreanu did not participate in any live tournaments in 2020.
Negreanu was asked about the fact that his winnings in 2021 were comparatively low. To which the Canadian replied: "I play in high buy-in events against tougher fields and they didn’t exist in quantity years ago. In 2004 I cashed for $4.5 million ish and spent less than $250k in buy-ins."
When it comes to the figures Negreanu reveals, it must be noted that they refer to tournaments only. Cash game winnings or losses are not indicated here. Here Negreanu had less success this year. He lost his heads-up battle against Phil Hellmuth and his match against Doug Polk. Together, these two matches alone probably cost him around 1.6 million dollars.
While most poker pros keep their exact tournament balances to themselves, another pro, Brandon Shack-Harris has also published his balances in detail. The two-time bracelet winner stays away from high-roller tournaments and in 2021, winnings of $160,000 were offset by buy-in costs of $148,000.
