PokerStars Releases Official Statement Regarding Negreanu Comment

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PokerStars has released an official statement via PokerNews.com to clear up any misconceptions on where the company stands regarding Daniel Negreanu’s recent comments that occurred during an interview with www.pokerplayer.co.uk, where he referred to Annie Duke as “F***ing C***”.

PokerStars likely felt the need to clear the air after Annie Duke posted a PokerStars E-Mail response that was sent to a female poker player who had complained about Daniel Negreanu’s comments, and Duke then called on the site to condemn the comments in an “Open Letter” on her blog.

Here is the E-Mail that was posted on Annie Duke’s blog at www.AnnieDuke.com:

Thank you for your email.

We are glad to hear that you are enjoying the Women’s Poker League and value very much as one of our loyal female poker players. Daniel and Annie are both passionate about poker, and both aren’t afraid to speak their mind. I think this is a fact people like and appreciate about both players. When you have two people that are similar in that regard, there’s bound to be friction somewhere along the line. Although Daniel Negreanu is a Team PokerStarsPro, he is an entity to himself and as such will always be encouraged to express his views and speak his mind as he would otherwise do so, PokerStars Pro or not. I hope you will still enjoy watching both Daniel and Annie play as both are fantastic poker players and an enrichment, on one way or another, for the poker world. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions and thank you for choosing PokerStars.

Regards,

Katja

PokerStars Support Team

Here is the PokerStars official response, sent to PokerNews.com:

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.

As to the PokerStars email posted in “open letter to PokerStars” on Annie Duke’s site, our support handles over 10,000 emails per day, and this was a case where our staff member incorrectly speculated with personal opinion, and overstepped their boundary. However they did not ‘condone’ the use of Daniel’s language at any point as is implied. Rest assured, this email was *not* PokerStars’ official statement on this issue.

Negreanu also tried to clear up his statement during an interview with PokerNews’s Kim Lansing: Negreanu told Lansing that he was ‘friendly’ with the interviewer, and was under the assumption that the comment was off the record. Negreanu apologized for the word being spoken, but stopped short of apologizing to Annie Duke. He also made it crystal clear that he never would use the word in anything that was meant for the public to see.

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Written by Steve Ruddock on August 26th, 2010