Poker superstar Daniel Negreanu joined the No Laying Up podcast and shared a few ridiculous stories about golf wagers he’s made over the years, and his on-course battles with fellow poker legend Phil Ivey.

Negreanu said he picked up golf in his early thirties, and eventually began gambling on the course for very high stakes. One of Negreanu’s bets required him to play 12 hours of golf a day just for a chance at a major payout. Negreanu said he bet $550,000 that he could shoot a score of 80 from the back tees at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, a PGA Tour-level course that hosts the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Negreanu only had one year to transform his game, and he won the bet with just a few days to spare.

Via the No Laying Up podcast:

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“My golf game was not very good. The back tees at TPC Summerlin is about 7,000 yards. I can’t hit a driver more than 230, so I don’t hit any of the greens from back there. I bet them that if they gave me a year, I could shoot 80 from the back tees there.

Born in 1974 in Toronto, Canada, Negreanu has an incredible poker resume – and horrible dating one. With 6 WSOP bracelets, and over $32.8 million in career tournament winnings, Negreanu is one of the most successful tournament poker players of all time. In fact, according to the Hendon Mob, Negreanu ranks number one in terms of all time money.

So I’m drunk and we’re all drinking and I bet 550 thousand dollars on this. But I get as many rounds as I need.

So with about a month to spare, I go out there and 110… 108… 106. OK, that’s my first three rounds, and I have a month. So we woke up at 7 a.m. every day, we practiced for an hour, played 18, practiced for another hour, played 18, played 9 more and then practiced again. So I would go from 7 a.m. to about 8 p.m. every day.

Within about a week, I was shooting low 90s. Maybe a week later, mid to high 80s. And with about a week and a half to spare, actually, I was 2-under after nine. So then all the carts started coming out, because they were like ‘oh boy, here he comes.’ There was probably 60 golf carts on the last three holes, sweating me. And so, in the last three holes, I needed to go bogey-bogey-bogey to win the bet. They were the three toughest holes, also. The first one is the easiest of the three, so I of course double-bogey that.

Now I need to par one of the last two, and I make par on . And then I have a six-footer for all of the money to win. I’m actually a good putter, but this putt – I hit the putt, and as I hit the putt, my knees sort of fell to the ground, in a way, but somehow the ball went in and I made it.”

Negreanu said he used to play against Phil Ivey frequently, and once lost a total of $1.2 million to Ivey in a single day on the course.

“We used to golf a lot back in those days, and I remember one time at Shadow Creek, I guess my grip was a mess. And I didn’t have anyone who was there to help me at the time, and he did and everyone else did. I just didn’t have a chance. Like, I couldn’t get the ball in the air. I lost like $1.2 million to him in one round.”

Daniel Negreanu Chess

Negreanu said he eventually lost around $3 million total in bets on the golf course, but made all the money back after getting help from a caddie and coach, Christian Sanchez.

Negreanu Poker

You can listen to the entire podcast here.