whos is the greatest poker player of alls time!?

DN obv.


































I'll be checking my email shortly for the free PVT confirmation now.

Only from what I've read, most think it was S. Unger.

Of those that I've watched, DN has an amazing ability to read opponents, Helmuth has the most bracelets, Scotty Nguyen??

I think Ivey is overrated, (great, but not as great as he's given credit).

Unger

Well, I would completely disagree. Unger may have been the most talented of all time, but that doesn't mean he's the best. To me, the people who win, year in year out, over time, are the true greats. Unger was a degenerate. It's romantic to say him, because he was so talented at tournament play. But many contend he was often a fish in the cash games, going on tilt and losing massive amounts of money. His whole life was basically a leak, he jizzed away every dollar he ever won. That's not a great player. Life management is a poker skill too.


The greatest players are the ones over time that win the most money. Who's won the most money over the last 5 years ( and I'm talking about poker here, not just tournaments). I would guess it would be Ivey, but I have no realy way of knowing. Who I don't think it was, was a guy who was perpetually broke and strung out, who had to be bankrolled his entire career.

Are we saying greatest all time like best compared to the people of his era, or just flatout the player with the greatest, deepest understanding, period? Like, I would be the best player by a million miles in pretty much any LHE game pre-2003. Similarly, if you take any NFL lineman today and put him in 1965, he would destroy, because the science of strength training and technique has improved so much. Same thing with NHL goaltending and probably a million other things. Players today have so much information to build upon that having a natural, intuitive sense of distribution frequencies or whatever isn't enough to make you money, and everyone works on their game, and pretty much everyone is better than pretty much anyone was 10 years ago.

Just from a pure understanding standpoint, I think most of the knowledge is moving to internet guys whose names the public doesn't know. Do guys like Ivey still make the most money? Have the online guys been going at it long enough to really tell? I'm sure someone else knows better than I do, but I would speculate that in a few years, Durrr or someone (I only say his name because I once hear NB mention thinking of him as the best or something) will understand poker better than anyone else ever has, and the money will be there too, if it's not already.

Doyle

I've heard guesses that Stu Ungar won around 30 million on the poker tables during his time and pissed it all away. He won 11 NL tounies $5000 or higer out of 33 he entered, not cashed, not final tabled, but WON. He was a genius, astronomical IQ. Bob Stupak once bet him $100k that he couldn't count down a six decks of cards and pick the last card. Stu won that. What he did off the tables should not matter. Poker is a business to them and he did business well. Who knows if he would have stood the test of time.


As for the best now, I think there should be two categories for that topic, online and live. I think the greats like Doyle, Chip, Barry, are always going to be considered for that honor. As for online, who knows. sbrugby was the hottest online shit two years ago and thats the last I've heard of him. I think Doyle said something about young online players, "ask me about who the best is in twenty years", don't remember exactly what it was.

I've seen some durrr videos online and wasn't very impressed. I don't know how he got that much money playing the way he did in these video's. I think he'll fizzle out within a couple years span.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfCZzFESDVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBZuHLA9Kos&NR=1

Clonie.

jennicide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD5H3CldR4g

"I like to put crystals on things."

Is she at all good?

Update, mostly for Mac:

I've looked into Jennicide, and I don't hate her at all. I actually find her adorable, and an offensively patronizing way.

Also, she's selling for autograph for $9.95 on her website.

There are alot of names that come up when you think about recognizable names in the TV era of poker. Lots of people whos faces and names you recognize, people who get the 15 minutes of fame and fizzle away as well as those who have made a reputation through years of playing winning poker and logging thousands of hours at the tables.
Finding the best poker player at a given period in time it is one thing, finding the best player of all time, it can't be someone like durr with short term success thus far... in that thought it can't really be Stu Ungar, as he didn't last long enough to put in a career's worth of results, which, is hard to measure for anyone because it is a relatively new career path.
The names that carried over through decades, the guys you still saw in the big games well into their life are Doyle and Chip...
In my mind the greatest poker career has to go to Doyle Brunson, the greatest tournament holdem player Phil Hellmuth, the greatest all around player chip reese... The greatest at all the different games, i'm not one to be in any position to name those players... or have those games become irrelevant? are we just naming the best nl hold'em player? This is tough to answer, we can name superheros of certain decades... but which names remained relevant and at the top through each phase in the evolution of the game?


hai