Negreanu Erupts At EPT Over “First Card” Rule

Outspoken Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu made quite the scene at the EPT Barcelona €10k High Roller event when he became a casualty of the controversial “first card off the deck” rule he so vehemently speaks out against.

The referred to rule states that players need to be at their seats by the time that the very first card is dealt off the deck and if they are not the hand is dead.

The incident, as reported by PokerNews, has Negreanu posting his small blind, in level 2 of the event, while standing just behind his chair talking with fellow participant Philipp Gruissem with his back to the table. Not being in his seat, as soon as the cards hit the table they were mucked by the dealer.

Negreanu, as he turned back to the table, immediately protested, claiming he was in compliance with the rule and he snap called the tournament staff to the table to hash things out. When the tournament director ruled that his dealer was correct, according to EPT rules, and said that Daniel’s hand was a dead one, Negreanu went on tilt.

Negreanu, in a show of protest decided to make a move to quit the tournament as he took his entire stack and declared he was all in blind, dropping a couple F-bombs along the way.

“These f***ing rules are so stupid they make me want to shoot myself in the face!”, Negreanu is quoted as saying as he shoved his remaining chips in the center, subsequently losing them all to Timothy Adams who called, and won, the hand.

Daniel then took to twitter to vent a little more:

The “first card off the deck” rule, recently implemented by the TDA, has been the target of Negreanu’s ire in the past. While it is new to the TDA, it has been a long-standing rule for EPT.

UPDATE: Daniel Negreanu took to the Full Contact Poker forums to comment on the incident.