PokerPlay

As television has embraced poker, the best poker players are now celebrities. We all have our favorites. I’ll list some of the worlds best, or most infamous.

One of the most well like stars of today is Daniel “kid poker” Negreanu. He combines his good natured, talkative demeanor, with a razor sharp analytic mind at the tables. His ability to call out exactly the two cards his opponents hold is staggering.

Barry Greenstein is a great ambassador for the game. He is known as the “robin hood of poker” because he donates all of his tournament winnings to charity. He has collected two WSOP bracelets.

Made famous for his outrageous verbiage at the tables, Mike “the mouth” Matusow is great for televised poker. His outrageous behavior, and intense passion creates drama for the viewers. He has two WSOP titles in his resume.

Lots of pros, when pressed for an answer to whom is the best poker player, name Phil Ivey. He has won five bracelets already, and seems destined to win many more. His only weakness in tournaments is that he sometimes plays in cash games at the same time, getting very little sleep.

Doyle Brunson is one of the founding fathers of the success of tournament poker. I believe he has played in every one of the WSOP Main Events. His has an impressive 10 bracelets to go along with two WSOP Main Event wins.

Made even more famous for his role in the movie Rounders, Johnny Chan is one of the best. He almost won three world title in a row. After winning in 1987 and 1988 he got all the way to heads up in 1999. He couldn’t beat Phil Hellmuth, and his rein as champ was finally over.

Scotty Nguyen is a WSOP Main Event champ. He made the famous statement “you call this, and it’s all over baby”, was called, and he was the champion. He added three other WSOP bracelets for a total of four.

Phil “the poker brat” is known more for his famous tantrums than his incredible WSOP record. He has won a record eleven bracelets and one world championship. His outrageous outbursts have been caught on tape, and are legendary.

You can’t leave poker legend Stu Unger off this kind of list. Possibly the best tournament poker player ever, his record is almost statistically impossible. In the 30 or so major ($5,000 and up) events he played in, he won an astounding 10 titles. WOW!!

This is just a sample of the characters that are becoming well known due to their increase in the popularity of poker. Even the late Stu Unger grows in stature as people learn the history of the game. Now, there seems to be no limit to how much poker can grow.

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