Didnt watch the vlog, but is this one of them "stop making fun of me cause my 45yo brother will beat you up" deals?

Pretty much. Daniel has always, going back to the deep dark days of RGP, always seemed like someone who was trying to convince both you and himself that he is cool and genuine. In 2001, this worked because the other mid-level names were mostly crabby morose older men who once ran deep in the main and whose main skill was playing mid stakes full ring LHE with a 12% VPIP. Daniel at least sounded happy to be there, was relatively young, and had some sense that maybe part of being a poker pro included being entertaining. So he developed a pre-boom following of sorts. When the boom hit, he was well positioned to take this brand image to a wider audience.

Since then, he's been fighting a holding action against time. He still has some mainstream credibility, but in the poker world the likes of Polk blew him off his corner long ago and he seems really bitter about it while trying to convince people that he isn't bitter. It's bizarre.

You've summed it up perfectly & it's almost too painful to watch. I'd have more respect for the guy if he just simply told Doug to back off & acted more genuine... the part about his brother is just pathetic and he should be embarrassed.

I'm new to following Polk as I have only recently gotten back into watching videos and podcasts. What I like about Doug's online presence is that I truly believe the guy is genuine with his comments and when he offers an opinion on poker, he has the best interests of the game at heart. He is entertaining and doesn't come off as a poseur. Just a guy using his talents to get ahead. Good for him.

Negreanu has always looked at what was in his own best interest and used his media presence to try and convince his followers, and the poker community at-large, that his way was the right way. Sometimes it was, but often it was just his looking to game the system to benefit him. To his credit, he has staying power and some very loyal fans, but the talent and media savvy of the younger pros, like Polk, makes Daniel look even more self-absorbed then he did back in the 2000's.

I am closer DNegs age and I find Doug much more entertaining and fun. He drops a little knowledge, a little sarcasm and doesn't take himself too seriously. I just started watching Vblog's right before the WSOP started and I don't watch Daniel anymore.

It is a no-brainer, Doug would be more fun to hang out with. Plus, Doug seems legitimately enjoy when people/fans interact with at him. With DNegs it seems to be for the camera sometimes.

Good to see the great James Woods in Doug's newest video. There's a guy who cracked some of the finest Aces in Hollywood, if you know what I mean.

The first one I watched was him shopping for underwear, and then working out.
That was the last one I watched.

I actually always looked through the fingers at DNegs MTT donkey etc.
But I like his Vlogs very much, it's more about schedule, getting ready, a Live Mixed games MTT Pro life. The rivalry with Doug's really cool even though Doug comes way on top obviously.

Interesting thing is that Negreanu is actually winning the Youtube game right now with the upped production and daily frequency and slightly with views in normal videos too I'm like 99% Sure he's pushing Doug to release more videos to reclaim the NO.1 spot.

And for us viewers that's ****ing awesome, all hail Negreanu!

Regarding Jeff Gross' VLogs..... The first one was basically unwatachable. They have gotten better though.

Jeff seems like a good dude but his vlogs are not that great IMO.

Link to part about his brother.

I think both of their vlogs are brilliant, for different reasons and in differing ways.

It is very hard to compare the two, it would be like comparing Monty Python with Bill Hicks, Nelson Mandela with Mahatma Gandhi, or beer with wine.

The two blogs make great viewing for different reasons.

It is funny, Doug Polk is slowly becoming the unofficial voice of poker, as people want his views on things. What I like about him is he has a benign approach to the game, as he is doing well, so has no particular axe to grind, so can stand back and laugh at all the madness in the poker community. And I like his subtle humour.

Hopefully Negreanu's protective psychotic brother has a sense of humour too.

Negreanu seems to live in an impervious bubble, but his vlog makes a great insight into high stakes grinding, as he is living the dream most have of playing at the highest levels, but it doesn't seem that happy a life for all the time put into it. But it is good how he sticks his neck out, saying up front what his buys ins are, what his returns are, what his targets are. And interesting to hear him say directly what his motives are, for example I thought his POY chase was a bit silly, why bother, but his viewpoint that it is good to have targets to aim at makes sense, so again, good to have the viewpoint from a pro perspective.

Though with his semi lecturing, I can't help thinking he will be making sure there are not many vegan gratitude walkers around!

Jeff is the textbook example of the difference between being an entertaining person and being an entertainer. Two very different things.

Those are all things that are easy to compare.

umm, no

just curious, are you planning on writing any more novels to demonstrate again to everyone here how far Doug's POY video went over your head?

It didn't go over my head at all. It wasn't a very well made video to polk fun at DNegs but support his central point that the POY points system is a joke,..... even if it was done in a sarcastic tone.

Try writing something decent yourself perhaps instead of trolling me.

That's exactly what someone whose head the video went over would say.

Yes possibly, but not in this case. These two, Doug Polk and DNegs, are obsessed with outdoing each other or taking snipes at each other.

I think Doug made a misjudgement and picked a bad topic to go after DNegs on when it's something DNegs was spot on about. It doesn't matter how much Doug dressed it up as comedy, the central thrust of the narrative didn't make proper sense, some sense but not complete sense. Hence "a muddled narrative" as I stated.

Also, if you watch the Kid Poker documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6paso_oRJ9s it gives a much better understanding and perspective of why DNegs so passionately chases after the POY, an aspiration made fun of by Doug Polk.

No Cliff

If you really think that... then Doug's video went so far over your head that it's probably orbiting Jupiter as I write this

Maybe watch the video again, but keep reminding yourself that Doug doesn't care about POY.

Don't get caught up in the gags - like the Greenstein one

It's meant to be a funny video

And it is very good

And maybe it's made funnier that some people [like you] don't get it... kind of like when some people watched Spinal Tap and thought it was real

I think the reason people find your posts 'long' - is because you quite often are saying things you think are deep, incisive and new - but are actually obvious, so all the verbiage makes people 'hate' on your posts

I can skip reading your essays - but when you are trying to misrepresent Doug's video... I had to jump in

I don't mean to be rude

But you are so out of pace with reality, right back to 'being nice' I will keep quiet and go back to biting my tongue

Hi Dave,

Yes I can't and won't rule out that it has gone over my head. But just watched it for a 3rd time and the narrative is still muddled IMO. The problem for me with the video is that it is an attempt at satire, which Doug usually does very well. However, the premise of satire is that it is framed around/exposes a truth through humour, irony, exaggeration and ridicule.
Doug Polk does all of these things but unfortunately the truth element is not there, because the new points system *is* horrible, and importantly the POY is also way more important to a lot of players than Doug's complete dismissal of it as a meh who gives a $hit measurement suggests.

Many of my posts are long and I do state the obvious sometimes or dissect a concept, but it is not the obvious to all readers. E.g. in another thread I referenced The Butterfly Effect Theory and gave a Wikipedia link. I got hated on for this and accused of stating the obvious. I replied by stating that I posted the link as not everyone had heard of the theory and that some people disputed its validity.

A few posts later a forum moderator of all people disputed The Butterfly Theory, as I had predicted some people do, so it justified me putting a little meat on the bones of the theory relating it to poker and me posting the Wikipedia link which showed all the in depth science behind it.

I am not a paid writer on 2plus2, there is no brief to please/cater for a certain demographic or attention span/lack of attention span group of people, and there is no onus on me or anyone else to write in a certain style or length.

Not all my posts are hated on, maybe about 1 in 4 are, and I think that most of this is a function of me posting quite a lot of posts compared to most and of me taking the opposite or sometimes lateral thinking view on some things that disagree with the majority. If I post something that 90% of NVG viewers agree with, and it happens to be a long post, it rarely gets hated on and sometimes gets praised.

My god.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of satire, it was the age of missing the point, it was the epoch of teasing Daniel, it was the epoch of incredulity about context, it was the season of vlogs, it was the season of sparse live streams, it was the summer of the WSOP, it was the winter of really long-winded self-important posts that border on self-parody and that betray that the writer has trouble understanding that maybe there is a universe beyond his understanding because once I posted about how narrowing down a hand range is sort of like the collapse of a quantum state but not really because that probably means that there is a parallel universe where Dutch Boyd won the 2003 main and is now the governor of Delaware and blah blah blah.

Sage, you are rapidly becoming as funny as the actual video.

A bit like Eyoore, analysing and dissecting a joke, and creating all sorts of silly rules about how a joke should be made, and then complaining this joke does not fit your definition of how a joke should be made.

The bottom line is he was doing a tongue in cheek dig at Negreanu, jokily representing Negreanu's point of view as his own (which anyone with a knowledge of Negreanu's series vids and sense of humour would quickly grasp) and you don't understand the references, so miss the joke.

As my mum used to say, a joke explained is a joke lost, and boy, you sure prove this to be true.

Your overly serious approach reminds me of a joke, a man says "good morning" to a psychologist. "Hmm" says the psychologist, "I wonder what he meant by that".

Have a great day, and have a laugh, heck, have a gratitude walk if you want. Just don't do any joke analysis, as you suck at it!