Three very different stories of success involving three PokerStars Ambassadors after a terminally ill man chooses to meet Daniel Negreanu as his dying wish, Maria Konnikova takes the stage at the World Economic Forum, and Lex Veldhuis wins the Sunday Warm-Up.

Smug.

Terminally ill man meets Negreanu; Konnikova on stage; RaSZi wins Warm-UpSanctimonious.

Patronising.

Those were three states of being slapped onto Daniel Negreanu after what’s been a catastrophic week for the man on Twitter. There were many more. Harsh. Critical. Sarcastic. Hateful.

Zachary Butler has a different POV.

“He’s just a funny guy,” said Butler.

Butler is a 33-year-old who currently resides in a hospice in Trezevant, Tennessee, and right now, as I type this, he is in Daniel Negreanu’s house playing cards.

And that’s a big thing.

Butler has a rare genetic disease called Friedreich’s Ataxia, and it’s going to kill him.

If you knew you were going to die, and you could have any wish in the world, what would you choose?

Thanks to the sterling work of the Dream Foundation, a non-profit organisation that turns the dreams of terminally ill people into reality, Butler’s wish has come true.

He got to meet, and play cards with, Daniel Negreanu.

Butler has been playing poker for more than a decade because his disease doesn’t affect his mind. He has always been a big Negreanu fan, watching him every time he is on TV, and he now gets to spend time with him in person during his special three-day trip to Sin City.

Will, he beat him?

“I’ll give it all I’ve got, but I doubt it,” Butler told the press with a great big smile on his face.

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