Not sure how Kessler feels about it but I don't think it's fair to say one way or the other without him saying.

No sure what's surprising about Amanda. She was a vegas party girl who is now past her prime who skated by on her looks. Of course she looks a lot worse than in her mid 20s starts getting cosmetic surgeries etc.

She knew Dnegs was still nostalgic about her so she latched on to the meal ticket.

I can relate somewhat to Dnegs on this one. I'm an older guy (46) and growing up my buddies and I would have small $20-40 home game tournaments and it was a diverse bunch. We had a Mexican kid, a Fillipino, the token black dude, a pale as **** Irish kid, TWO Nicaraguans, my half-Jewish ass, etc.

And we were definitely NOT politically correct, everyone and everything was pretty much fair game and balls were constantly busted.

It was all good-natured and not meant with any malice, and I think the same holds true for Dnegs in how he views his comments, impressions, etc. He doesn't mean any harm, he has no dislike or hatred towards any specific groups, he feels he's connecting with them on some level by his actions.

But in todays world of political correctness it's a slippery slope.

I honestly don’t think he’s hated that much or even at all… I think most of the criticisms are fair within reason and the tone is lost.

It’s also why I would never want to be famous bc I would be trading my privacy for fame.

Hellmuth is hugely +ROI for the WSOP, even in the last few years. Negreanu is selling action at no markup. I am sure Negreanu could make a good living from poker if he stuck to tournaments he could beat. However, he is nothing like the top play GG markets him as.

There was always something I didnt like about DNegs.. even before the blackface and Doug Polk stuff (~2005). I think it's his personality and where he "always" knew the cards his opponent had. In high school, I remember a lot of my friends being like "Did you see that hand on World Poker Tour last night? Daniel knew exactly what he had!".

...but then again, while I didnt like DNegs, I did like Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, so that shows what I know lol

Most of us have been in friend groups where we rib on eachother's accents/backgrounds. Consistently doing it to strangers, while filming it, at his age, is a different story.

They both claimed they are the best in Poker!!

I think results tell the story of both.

Helmuth has 17 WSOP Bracelets to back up his claim.

If we don’t count last 2 years DNEG has good total winnings.

IMHO.

I think no one can argue against 17 WSOP bracelet!!

I think Helmuth wins it !

I mean, there isa difference between doing a Jamaican accent, and doing blackface in the 21st century. It's really not a "slippery slope". It's being an idiot at best, and racist at worst.

We've all done stupid **** in the past, and if you do, youre better off saying "yeah, I shouldnt hae done that, I have learned and become better now, than "durr, but the Jamaicans I knew didn't complain about it, durr"

For sure. I mean, Hellmuth is delusional, but Daniel's constant criticism of him is just projecting. It's also a pretty bland, stale take to say "he's behind the times". Yeah, you are only the 10 billionth person to state that. So glad you made a 30 minute vlog about it .

Your interpretation of making fun of accents is reasonable, but people do genuinely think of it as Daniel does.

I am a very poor speaker of Spanish and Mexicans mocking gringo Spanish sends me into hysterics. I had a friend in CDMX who would mock my Spanish and I'd completely lose it every time. I listen to Spanish radio sometimes, in a futile attempt to learn, and there were these ads where a white girl goes to a car dealership and is like, Yo Nessi-seet-oh un car-oh buen-oh. Very funny. I also will eat up Brits and other English speakers doing American accents with a spoon.

People have always thought foreign languages/accents are funny. They made fun of Ricky's accent on I Love Lucy. Obviously, Desi wasn't offended. Going slightly farther back, the word 'barbarian' comes from Greeks making fun of the speech of foreigners. As an English speaker might say Chinese sounds like, "ching chong," Greeks thought foreigners sounded like "Barr Barr."

The thing is, that learning a foreign language is hard AF. And this is just a funny feature of humanity. 99.9% of any people who learn a foreign language will have an accent and sound a bit silly in the other language. Even people like Alfred Einstein. So, finding humor in accents is a lot different than humor that is based on the idea that some race is genetically inferior, as difficulty in a second language applies to everyone equally.

Reminds me of broader issues. There are 2 visions of humor/satire. In one, the satirist points down at his targets, identifying their inferiority. In the other, the satirist is identifying the endless folly of the human condition so that we might all laugh at it together. A similar thing is the comic view of the world, which is that we are all bungling idiots, vs the tragic view, which is that we are cynically evil.

Not saying that whites get carte blanche to pull their eyses with their fingers and say "me rikey flied lice" so much as saying that laughing about the difficulty for almost all people in speaking a foreign language is not anything like thinking some races are inferior.

Tbh, most women in her age range when they finally settle down with a man, they don’t share the same level of affection the men usually do. It’s why they “settle” down.

Theres a lot of things to criticize about Daniel but his relationship isnt really one of them.

Regardless of how or why Amanda "settled" with him initially, she seems to have pretty good chemistry with him. Certainly better than what a lot of men pushing 50 can say about their relationships.

Madly in love? I guess. The evidence is that he bought her the ring when she was younger but she wasn't ready yet. Needed to get that sexy fling with Dutch Boyd over with.

I think as they got older they both realized that perfect love is generally not attainable so if you have to make compromises just like everyone else.

I remember DNegs going all crazy, yapping about them having a lot of children when they finally got married. Strangely it's gotten very silent on that front. It appears she may not be able to conceive. To their credit, they are both still together. I could see a lot of people breaking up due to that.

As for your deduction that she may be in it for the comfort not so much love, I would probably agree. Compare Josh Arieh's wife who was cheerleading him at most of his events, Amanda barely showed up in many of DNegs 70+ WSOP video blogs.

As you get older you learn to compromise.

Daniel's vlogs needed way more Amanda and the puppies.
And when I say puppies, I'm not talking about the four legged kind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HCRwPDMIsc

Meh, I guess it was one of the perks for marrying a rich guy. You think she got them bigger after they married?

It looks like Arieh is marrying his gf in a year so not his wife yet. Arieh is an older guy like DNegs. Much rather have a hot young wife fawning over me than what Amanda is doing. Then again, maybe it's just newlywed's excitement and they will be in the same state as DNegs/ANegs in a few years.

DN is THEE most jealous of PH. I don’t understand why, other than being the GREATEST Poker Player in history. DN should just give it up. He will NEVER be on PH level.

Bageled

I really like this take. Have you ever watched that kid on Youtube, Xioma or something like that. Chubby white kid who has an Asian wife and he lived in Bejing for a time. He learns TONS of languages fairly quickly and then films himself going to different shops or places and speaking English, then suddenly transitioning into the native tongue of people speaking Mandarin or any other number of dialects across the world.

The extreme amount of joy people get when they meet someone who is willing to put the effort into at least trying to speak their language, it's just so uplifting to watch his videos and see the connections despite the cultural differences people have.

Hey now, they can't be mixing up the various Asian stereotypes like that... I wish to be mocked accurately!

Japanese doesn't have the equivalent of an L, so that letter tends to come out as Rs. My sister is Julie, but many of our older relatives her "Ju-ree." And with the tapped R, it sounded closer to Judy.

Oddly, my mom's side of the family was interned at Tule Lake, yet none of them say/said "Too-ree rake." Then again, most of the older generation didn't survive the camp so who knows how they said it.

As for turning Rs into Ls, this stereotype has long been assigned to the Chinese stereotype, but I haven't heard it in practice. In fact, the only person I've heard who noticeably turns most Rs into Ls is Chris Brewer, due to an unusual speech impediment. He might not say "flied lice," but Star Wars would likely come out "stall walls."

One thing I find somewhat interesting when it comes to mimicry of accents is how Robin Williams largely escaped backlash for it. This was a huge part of his act, particularly later in his career. The only time I remember it coming up was from Wyatt Cenac, who took issue with the way Williams immediately went into "black voice" during their first meeting. Perhaps cancel culture and the larger overall sensibility about this sort of thing didn't take off until after Williams' death. But even posthumously, he seems to get a relative pass for it.

Daniel is a buffoon, plain and simple. You either like watching the buffoonery or you find it cringe worthy. One thing I noticed is that Daniel does not like people. He talks at people rather than talking with people. He puts on a performance for strangers. Or he talks “at” his employees or people beholden to him. He’s not rude, just not very authentic. There is never a real type of connection or conversation. Even the interactions with his wife are extremely awkward. It’s very odd.

In his defence it’s always going to be challenging to be authentic when you’re making a vlog. He’s a poker player, not a presenter.

But that said, your assessment seems generally in line with my interactions with him and what I’ve witnessed of him. He’s all smiley and friendly, but it doesn’t seem genuine. Yep, he’ll stop for a picture but you aren’t getting anything of any depth. Obviously he’s at work and I’m not expecting him to be making best friends with anyone but considering what he seems to think he portrays, it comes over somewhat empty in person.

I’ve had much more lengthy interactions with other players like Moneymaker or Scotty Nguyen. They at least took time to ask names and where people were from etc. The only player I had a worse interaction with than Daniel was Helmuth. I called him as he was walking my way, he took one look, rolled his eyes and walked in the other direction. He had just bust a $50k though 😂

There are much better old school players. Never mind Hellmuth. Ivey and Seidel. Plus many cash game players, some of them mixed game, limit, or PLO players.

missing the vlog tbh. hope he does it for the Bahamas

I agree with all of this. I think he just thinks that he is above the "common people" It especially is evident when he's in a low buy in tournament. He categorizes his opponents as ones he knows and ones he doesn't know. If he doesn't know somebody he assumes they are part of the hoard of inferior losers. Other famous players just don't act that way. Seidel seems very humble, as an example.

It's all really disappointing to me as a fellow Canadian. I guess the stereotype of Canadians being "nice" doesn't apply to everybody. Or maybe we wouldn't act all that differently if we were as rich and popular as he is.

I dont get the impression that he thinks hes above people. He has the same way of speaking to long time pros like Arieh, Ben Lamb etc as he does with the "commoners". Its just how he is.

Its like he wants to be friendly, but doesnt know how to be so in a genuine manner that actually allows him to connect to the people around him. Hes positive and upbeat but in an annoying way. Its always very superficial, and if he is like that with the cameras off as well I wouldnt be able to be around him for very long. In some of the more "party" vlogs you see him socializing with others, but it never seems like the other people are drawn to him. Its always Daniel approaching others, never the other way around. And when the party is over hes often on his own. How many times has he done something "normal" in his vlogs like have dinner with a few friends? Not once during WSOP did he go out for dinner with friends - says a lot about his social life.

He makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cuts them in triangles for Allen Kessler. Dnegs is essentially an old Greek mother taking care of her boy