Who's your favorite (famous) Poker player?

[Mass_Liberal]

My big summer thing is to watch the World Series of Poker. And this fine spring day has me thinking about poker. So...who?

[Dookus]

1. I've been lucky enough to play with a number of them

and I'd say T.J. Cloutier is my favorite. A fantastic player and a class act all around.

[Mass_Liberal]

2. really?

do tell. He's the one who never calls right? He had a philosophy: if you have the hand, or are going to bluff, then raise. If you don't or aren't fold. I think it was somethin like that.


Anyway, tell the story of how you played with the big dogs.

[Dookus]

5. well, I don't think he NEVER calls

but he's right that one should call a lot less often than most people do.

I've played a number of poker tournaments at my local poker club. I don't play much live poker nowadays, but for a couple years I played probably 30 hours a week.

My first big tournament was when I was still a $2-4 hold'em player. I won a satellite for a seat in a $300 buy-in tournament. The tournament was the day after the satellite. I bought Cloutier's book on tournament poker, read it that night, and came in second the next day in the tournament. That was the first time I got yelled at by Phil Hellmuth, too. He was mad that I had the audacity to play against him with a better hand. :shrug:

Anyway.... a couple times they had BIG tournaments that I was able to win satellites for. I sat between TJ and Tom McEvoy once - that was scary, but it was a great experience.

Layne Flack is also one of my favorites. He's a good friend of a friend, and I sold him an extra seat I had won in a big tournament. He went on to win. That year I went to the World Series of Poker (Played one Omaha event) and Layne won a few titles that year. He's just astoundingly good.

The other player that just blew me away was Huck Seed. I haven't seen him at all on the World Poker Tour - is he still playing? Does he avoid the "show your cards" shows? Huck was just uncanny in knowing when he had the goods or when nobody else did.

[Mass_Liberal]

7. I hate Phil Helmuth

most annoying guy in the world. From what I've seen on TV, that is.

[Dookus]

16. he's a mixed bag

He's a great player, though probably not as great as he thinks he is. And away from the table, he seems like a nice enough guy. But he is a total ass when playing.

[Mass_Liberal]

3. eh?

[Search Party]

4. I don't know how to spell his last name...

Howard Ledherer?

I like his style

Phil Ivey as well.

[Mass_Liberal]

8. Ya

he's won of my faves as well. Lederer. They call him the professor.

[SiobhanClancy]

6. Harry Truman

not a professional poker player,but definitely a FAMOUS poker player:)

[Mass_Liberal]

9. good one!

[Twillig]

10. Sammy Farha (sp?)

He's got the unlit Baretta cigarette hanging outta the mouth look goin' on. Seemed to not have the anal table aura of the others too.

[Mass_Liberal]

11. ooo dude

I loathe that guy. I was so happy when Moneymaker beat him. It was delicious.

[Twillig]

12. ugh. The redneck wins.

ugh. fat mirror sunglasses wearing doofus.

Bleh.

[Mass_Liberal]

13. heheh

I dunno. I consider it a personal victory when dead money wins. Farha was so damn smug.

Bleh.

[Twillig]

14. I dunno either.

maybe that was smugness. He seemed to be comfortable (till he got beat, and he took that well too). Cocky sure..

The others for the most part were so uptight their faces looked like those of a golfer standing over his 4th putt.

:-)

[Mass_Liberal]

15. heheh

not Poker Jesus (my personal favorite)

[MrSlayer]

17. Chris Moneymaker

I just started watching this year and I was glad to see the Internet upstart beat all the pros.

[Mass_Liberal]

18. ya

thas what I like about him. Gave me fantasies of rising from mediocre pacificpoker player to World Series contender. Kinda like John Edwards becoming a millionaire.

[SEAburb]

19. Gus Hansen

He could be holding any two cards in the deck, but plays them like aces.

As for Phil Hellmuth I admire his passion for the game.

[Awsi Dooger]

20. Stu Unger, although somewhat deceased

I live in Las Vegas and used to work in the Horseshoe sportsbook. Jack Binion thought his poker buddies were sports betting chumps and would let them bet almost any sum, well above our stated limits.

Most of the poker players were arrogant jerks, but Stu Unger was consistently polite, calling me by name and thanking me sincerely when I allowed him to wager above our so-called limits. Typically he bet baseball, in the $5000 range.

It was terrific theater when Unger pulled off the comeback win in the World Series in the mid-'90s, bankrolled by Billy Baxter. He died within a couple of years, only in his 40s, drug dependent and apparently broke again.

None of the day-to-day poker players I know has anything nice to say about Phil Helmuth. But they are admittedly jealous and resentful, deeming most of the recent tournament winners as lucky go-for-broke types who would get swamped in the every day high limit grind.