For some reason I thought he didn\’t drink … but still, regardless, Daniel Negreanu seems to have been busy partnering up with some new, non-online-poker entities just in time for Christmas the WSOP. One is a brand-new (live action) poker training site called PokerVT. Good for him, and probably for them, too … though I wonder how many people will really want to pay to go to school with Neggy\’s digital likeness.
His other new biz deal is all about after-poker … as he\’s pimping PT\’s — a big chain of neighborhood video-poker pubs around Las Vegas — and the commercials are all over the local TV feeds of pokery shows. In this ad, he steps away from the table after busting an opponent and then heads out to a bar where he chats with a random hot waitress and then shoots some pool with a random dude who challenges him to a game for a round of brews.
I gotta think it works. Because for some reason, for the couple-dozen-plus of these 24-hour taverns I\’ve visited (literally, they\’re on almost every corner once you get a mile or so off the Strip) I\’ve never stepped foot inside a PT\’s … probably because there are so many, but regardless, now this ad tells me it\’s OK to do so … and as added value to my late-night steak-and-eggs, there\’s a 1-in-37 shot of running into an off-duty poker pro while there.
While this may not be the biggest of big deals, I remember Scottie Pippen doing Montgomery Ward\’s billboards back in the early \’90s, and it\’s good to see a poker pro doing some non-poker pimping on par with a top NASCAR driver.
CORRECTION: I have stepped foot into a PT\’s sorta — didn\’t realize Sierra Gold (a few blocks from where I live) is one of their joints.