Daniel Negreanu: I hate it when people say 'You messed with the wrong person.' Truth is that person is usually the perfect person to mess with. 1 Dec

Doyle Brunson: OMG… I’m rich. Silver in the hair, gold in the teeth, crystals in the kidneys, sugar in the blood, lead in the ass, iron in the arteries. 7 Nov

Phil Hellmuth: I consider myself a “Hero!” I inspire millions, I have perfect ethics + morals! But public thinks [I’m a] VILLIAN! 9 Dec

Annie Duke: Took care of the no wallet problem by winning $500 in the $1/2 nl game. Now I can go crazy in the Philly airport. 11 Dec

Dan Fleyshman: Moral of the Story: People like sex and controversy. 20 Dec

Its seems rumors are circulating the Isildur1, the mysterious high stakes superstars who we’ve covered from day 1 of his venture into the online poker world, is on the verge of  being signed by a major poker room. The Swedish players, whose identity has been the subject of many a debate is reasoned to be 20 year old Swede Viktor Blom, but this cannot be confirmed or denied

According to Swedish newspaper Expressen blogger Sohello Shah who writes about poker, the high stakes player has already signed an exclusive deal with one of the major online poker sites. This again has led to much speculation by the poker community as to who this could be/

Shad left clues that t “[the player in question] is 20 and has been the talk of the poker world since 2009,”. This again leads us to believe that this player in question as it pretty much fits the profile is indeed Isildur1. Apparently this deal has been on the books for some time but has just been a matter of specific in terms of the players negotiating terms.

If and when this announcement is made it seems Isidulr1’s identity will most likely be named.

We already had a post about the Negreanu/Duke insult throwing silliness earlier on this week. And now, for the sake of having a frivolous Friday we’re going to propagate the gossip and the rumours.

Here goes:

Negreanu recently referred to Duke as a “f***ing c***” in an interview but it seems this is only part of a stream of verbal abuse that has been going on between the two poker pro's since before fame was even a twinkle in their respective eyes. It seems it all started over a decade ago when they first joined the professional poker circuit in the early 90’s. Duke got there first and apparently when they were first pitted against each other Duke was extremely critical of Negreanu and his style of play.

Fast-forward to the beginning of the ‘naughties’ when the feud became public on the rec.gambling.poker forum where a  particular exchange between the two took place after they had played against each other online. Negreanu insulted Duke via chatbox and Duke responded by reporting to the support of the online poker site and Negreanu then sent a hostile email to Duke. At this point Duke’s brother, Howard Lederer, decided to get involved by posting Negreanu’s email on rec.gambling.poker where it remains in the archives to this very day.

After this the criticism continued on occasional blog posts but nothing too salacious, UNTIL the clash picked up again this summer- see our recent Negreanu takes another dig at Duke! post.

Howard Lederer is now back on the scene, saying the following on Twitter soon after Negreanu’s insult about Duke: “Hey Daniel, nice job representing poker and reinforcing that our attitude towards women is still Neanderthal,”

Negreanu is ranked number one and Duke is ranked fifth meaning that Negreanu is the top male player in the world while Duke is the top female player in the world and perhaps this is where the tension is coming from. With both of them at the top of their game who is ultimately the better player? Claws Out!

                                  The poker celebs, during happier times.

While he’s really good at poker...ahem...extremely good at poker, he’s not the greatest at making his point diplomatically and with restraint. Daniel Negreanu has successfully stirred up the controversial pot of whether there should still women-only tournaments while adding a nice direct insult to Annie Duke to the pot.

He recently had a rather large rant about Annie Duke in an interview; when asked to comment on an incident earlier this year in which a group of men dressed in drag and played in the Ladies Event at the WSOP, he had the following to say about Duke: “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 on one side of the coin she’s fighting for, ‘Oh, we’re all equal, there shouldn’t be any gender thing,’ but when appropriate she decides to call herself the best female poker player in the world.”

Now this is an interesting, and to some a valid, point but he doesn’t stop there, he’s goes on 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.”

Youch! Plus, this isn’t an isolated incident: Before both of them became famous for their poker prowess, Negreanu made a series of scathing comments about Duke’s poker tournament behaviour.  Perhaps Negreanu should have joined Duke on Celebrity Apprentice to really have upped the entertainment stakes.