The Proust Questionnaire: Daniel Negreanu

As part of a new Sunday Interview series here on www.pokerlistings.com we’ll be posting a variety of back-and-forths with your favorite pros.

Sometimes a straight-up Q&A, sometimes a game of 20 questions, sometimes rapid-fire word association, sometimes a longer email conversation … whatever the format the goal is the same — to offer new insight into the personalities of your poker heros.

Kicking things off is perhaps the most prominent poker pro in the word today — Daniel Negreanu.

Negreanu sat down with our colleague at PokerListings France, Fred Guillemot, for a round with the Proust Questionnaire at the recent WSOPE in Cannes.

Daniel Negreanu Up Close and Personal

(If you’re not sure what the Proust Questionnaire is, check it out here.)

PokerListings: If you were an animal, what would you be?

Daniel Negreanu: A horse.

PL: If you were a country?

DN: Canada.

PL: If you were a city…

DN: Rome.

PL: If you were a poker tournament…

DN: I would be the 50k 8-game mix Players Championship at the World Series.

PL: If you were a card…

DN: The Jack of Diamonds.

PL: If you were another famous man or woman…

DN: I would be Bob Marley.

PL: If you were a color…

DN: Black!

PL: If you were a movie…

DN: I would say Good Will Hunting.

PL: If you were a sport…

DN: Ice hockey.

PL: If you weren’t a poker player, what job would you like to have?

DN: I would like to be an actor/movie director.

PL: Who’s your favorite fictional character?

DN: Let’s see… Tyler Durden, from the movie Fight Club.

PL: A man or woman you’d like to see on a new banknote?

DN: I would put… Who would I put on a new banknote ? I’d put… Lady Di.

PL: The song you like the most?

DN: Redemption Song by Bob Marley.

PL: The sound you like the most?

DN: The ocean.

PL: The sound you dislike the most?

DN: (makes the sound of an annoying buzzer)

PL: What’s your favourite quality in a man?

DN: Intelligence.

PL: And for a woman?

DN: Genuine heart.

PL: What’s your main fault?

DN: I speak before I think.

PL: The fault for which you have the most tolerance?

DN: Ambitious foolishness. People who are ambitious but sometimes do stupid things.

PL: The word you like the most?

DN: The word I like the most? It starts with a C, I can’t say it though. (laughs)

Maybe genius… No, that’s not it. Oh! Innit… you know, innit, like the english say it.

PL: What’s the word you dislike the most?

DN: Hmmm… Interesting. I can’t think of one, let me see…

(Daniel has to go to the bathroom. Then, once back…)

I’ve got it! It’s “standard deviation.”

PL: What’s your favourite addiction, aside from poker?

DN: Golf.

PL: Which gift or superpower would you like to have?

DN: The gift to read minds.

PL: Ah, of course. But you already do!

DN: (laughs) Yeah. So… Being invisible.

PL: What do you hate the most?

DN: In general? I hate incompetence.

PL: If you could choose, how would you wish to die?

DN: How would I wish to die? Horizontal, with a lady on top of me, how’s that? (laughs)

PL: If God exists, what would you like Him to tell you once you’re dead?

DN: I’d ask him why he made the Bible so confusing, first of all. And second of all, I would hope that he would say that, at the core, everything I did was for the right reasons.

PL: And finally, what would you want to be reborn as?

DN: I would like to be reborn as a professional golfer.