Who is the Greatest No Limit Holdem Player in the World

I'm surprised that Jamie Gold is not in this poll. Every time I turn on the TV and the WSOP is on, that dude is always being featured, it seems.

 

Yes, and no...because Luck ruins anything you might have picked up, which is the maddening aspect of it.

DD

 

that's only b/c he won last year's main event. i wouldn't be surprised if he was a one hit wonder...just like Farconi and Moneymaker.

 

for those that picked Helmuth...does the Greatest NL holdem player in the world CRY and ***** after every loss..i dont think so

lol..but its always funny to watch

 

it makes him a sore loser, but not any less of a great player.

 

I think the best players are those that can fold and read their opponents.

Daniel Negraneu (Sp?) and Phil Ivey make great reads.

Allen Cunningham is up there in terms of smarts as well.


Jamie Gold got lucky so many times last year to just get a monster
stack. I'd be surprised if we ever hear anything out of him again.

 

Cunningham is the best, hands down. I would pick Ivey if we were going on popularity, or who I would enjoy playing against.

 

my really good hold em playing friend is unhappy that townsend and antonius aren't on the list. i guess that shows you how the tv skews what we think is good.

 

Ivey easily because I've seen him wear a Francis jersey, a pajama one at that, at a tournament.

 

If your talking about Holdem, Townsend is only slightly above average. He is however one of the best Omaha players I have ever seen. I voted Negreanu because he makes some of the most ridiculous reads I've ever seen, though that could be because he is the only player that thinks aloud every hand.

 

agreed

 

Ivey and Negraneu are sick for real. Did anybody see the series last night. Daniel would put peoples hands out there left and right. I love that sh**. It's intimidating when someone can call you out like that one a consistent basis.

 

They don't show the thousands of other times he calls out peoples hands and gets it wrong. I think Negraneu is a great player, but he calls out peoples hands all the time and gets it wrong.

 

Phil's a great player but he does give his critics a lot of ammunition to "talk bad" about ...

i picked Negreanu. dude makes some reads that are uncanny.

 

yea, that's what i was gonna say.

 

he said if you consider an 8 figure winner at hold em only slightly above average at the top games then that's a great opinion to have.

 

I haven't watched much of this year's event, but I did see him tell the table how terrible they were at poker when he lost a hand after allowing the player to stay in the hand by checking after the turn.

I don't play much competitive poker. I typically go to this bar on the west side that has free tournaments four nights a week. There's a guy up there that is uncanny at reading people. I can't tell you how many times a night he tells people at the table the exact hands they have.

 

I don't see how anyone can use the WSOP main event as a criterion for skill. That thing is gotten so huge that it's pretty much a crapshoot and skills be damned you still lose. There are so many amateurs who play completely irrationally that it's pretty much the luck of the draw. You can do everything right and still lose because some clown decided to go all the way with some horrid hand and got lucky at the end.

Winning that is basically getting a damn good draw through the tournament and a lot of luck. Completely meaningless when it comes to a determinant of skill.

 

If you meant tournament NL Hold'Em player there really isn't an argument to made for anyone beside Hellmuth. He's got 11 WSOP titles in NL hold 'em. Ivey has zero. Negreanu has zero. Phil also has a Main Event title from when it was almost all pro's, he is still the youngest Main Event champion, and he beat Johnny Chan head's up that year when Chan was at the very top of his game (going for his third straight title). Yes, he is annoying - but saying anyone else is better at NLHE tournaments is just plain silly.

 

I just wish this stuff didn't get aired on ESPN... there should be a separate channel that I don't have for it.