Daniel Negreanu Criticizes Re-entry Tournaments

On Twitter, Daniel Negreanu stated that he doesn’t believe tournament re-buys should exist.

Negreanu Considers Avoiding Tournament Re-Buys in 2020

This week, Daniel Negreanu took to Twitter to make his distaste for rebuys known. In the past, he has mentioned that if he were to host a poker tournament, all events would be freezeouts – but, he has now come right and said that re-entry tournaments “shouldn’t exist”.

I’m also considering playing all of 2020 with no reentry.

That means I won’t cash as often.

Won’t make as many final tables, but at least I won’t be taking part in something I don’t thing should exist, or at least be the norm.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) December 9, 2019

Some members of the poker community have responded. While generally agreeing with Negreanu, some have suggested that tournaments only have one rebuy – just in case they suffer a really bad beat or have come a long way to play a specific event.

Negreanu had a solution for this, though. He stated that if a player busts, they should simply play cash games after they have exited the tournament. As an alternative, tournament organizers should have other events set up throughout the day so busted players have the chance to try again.

Some have pointed that out that Negreanu would be shooting himself in the foot if he had any hopes of vying for the title of the 2020 World Series of Poker Player of the Year. For players to be eligible, they have to cash in quite a few tournaments throughout the WSOP and its various circuits – which does sometimes require firing a number of bullets. However, it seems like that is a just a risk that Daniel Negreanu is willing to take.

The Case Against Rebuys

Rebuys in poker tournaments provide players with a second (third, fourth or fifth) chance to vie for a cash prize. Many players find them useful, but there are plenty of players who don’t benefit from the concept of re-entries.

Players who have more limited budgets won’t be able to fire as many bullets as players with larger bankrolls. Essentially, re-entry tournaments can come down to who has more money to afford more re-buys. So, a very talented poker player may be missing out on a chance to make the money while another player with a bigger budget or more backing could make it much further without being as skilled.

On the other hand, rebuys can help build larger prize pools and they have a tendency to attract more players. A larger field of runners could also be seen as a negative, though.

In 2020, we’ll see if Daniel Negreanu sticks to his guns. He’s a very determined player, so we wouldn’t be surprised if he did actually refrain from re-entering any tournaments in the new year.