Comments which are off the record are ought to be kept private. However, this very vital rule is often ignored, and that’s where problems begin to unfold. Just recently, some of Daniel Negreanu’s negative – or should I say nasty – comments about Annie Duke were revealed on an interview with PokerPlayer.co.uk. Negreanu thought that the remarks were made off the record, but they were nonetheless published, which lead to poker community being divided on three fronts, one with Annie Duke, one with Daniel Negreanu, and another that’s just sitting back and eating popcorn as the drama unfolds.

Which side are you on?

It was in an interview with writer Mark Stuart, Daniel Negreanu said – off the record, of course – that Annie Duke was a “f***ing c***”. Of course, what those tiny asterisks mean, I’ll leave to your imagination. Either way, upon hearing it, Duke was naturally incensed. The article was entitled ‘The Evolution of Daniel Negreanu’, and in it was a question about what ‘irked’ him about the 2010 WSOP Ladies Event. If you guys remember, there were more than a dozen men who joined that tournament, with some of them audacious enough to wear a gown and a wig. Negreanu said that he was disgusted with the incident, but he went on to say what exactly irked him about Annie Duke. Duke, as you may remember, was a firm crusader of equality among men and women at poker.

However, Duke also wrote on her site that she’s “the best female poker in the world”. This was what irked Negreanu, leading him to say “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.” Of course, nasty curses aside, Negreanu does have a point. The article eventually got to Duke and the comments surprised her. She responded by saying, “I was certainly shocked at the language myself. I welcome criticism, but not abuse.” Of course, she had a point too. Negreanu was welcome to voice his opinion, but such verbal abuse would and should never be tolerated.

Then again, wasn’t it supposed to be off the record?  And that, my dear friends, is where the demon rears its ugly head.

High Stakes Drama

Of course, the top pros in the industry have also expressed their views on the matter. Howard Lederer, for one, came to Duke’s defense. Tony G was trying to act as a mediator, saying that they should resolve this matter diplomatically before anyone gets ‘really hurt’.  Annie Duke is harping at the online poker room, Pokerstars, because of some inappropriate usage of the word ‘encourage’ in relation the issue at hand. Negreanu, on the other hand, has been keeping mum about the whole thing and has yet to offer an apology. Indeed, morbid as it is, I have to admit that it’s exciting to watch this drama unfold.

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