Daniel vs. Annie Rages On
The Daniel Negreanu vs. Annie Duke fued has reached new heights recently. It is no secret that neither player likes each other. Years ago, Daniel made several comments regarding Duke that ranged from claiming that she was unbearable to deal with at the poker tables to saying that she smelled bad. However, now things have really sunk to a new low due to a comment Negreanu made during an interview with the UK magazine PokerPlayer.
He Said What?
Daniel was asked about what his opinions regarding the Ladies Event at the 2010 World Series of Poker, he had the following to say:
“What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world.’ So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.’”
The Explanation
After the article was released, a firestorm ensured and eventually, Daniel was asked loosely about this in an interview with Kimberly Lansing at the Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles. Daniel then claimed that the comment he made about Duke was supposedly made off the record and was not supposed to be printed. He then offered a somewhat loose apology to women that may have been offended by the use of the “c word” but not to Duke herself.
Reaction to Story
Duke’s brother Howard Lederer said the following on Twitter in response to Daniel’s comments:
“Hey Daniel, nice job representing poker and reinforcing that our attitude towards women is still Neanderthal. I understand some agree w DN on the ladies poker event issue. Many do. But abusing those you disagree with is never cool.”
Duke later released an “Open Letter to PokerStars” on her blog where she criticized the site for not admonishing Daniel for his comments. In fact, one of the PokerStars support staff actually backed Daniel and his right to say what he wants, further drawing the ire of Duke. Online support is one of PokerStars Texas Hold’em poker site features that is not an official voice of the company.
PokerStars Official Reaction
After Duke’s open letter on her blog, PokerStars, issued the following statement:
“PokerStars does not support the use of derogatory or hurtful language directed at any other player. While this was a personal matter between two players, we wish that better judgment had been used in the choice of words.”
PokerStars also went on to state that the support representative that spoke about Daniel did so on opinion, and not at the request or approval of PokerStars. They went on to state that PokerStars did not support the comments made by the support person.
What Has Come Out of This
In the end, nothing really materialized from this story. The only thing that this did was put Daniel in a bad light. In a time of economic downturn and poker websites struggling to become legal in the U.S., this really equated to being a story that should have just stayed buried. However, it is probably safe to assume that this story has went a long way to reignite a long standing feud that really has no real signs of ending anytime soon.
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