Quote:
Originally Posted by mbrown1833
PokerNews is probably hiring, Sage.
With that said, Derbyshire's blunder has to be top 10 news of the year. Whether or not you agree with him or not is a totally different story.
I would be fired too after not long, as most of my thoughts, views and theories are not what pro/semi-pro poker players or grinders want to hear, because many of my views are contrarian to the poker community and dig under the surface of some of the BS that exists within the poker community and the poker industry itself.
I did use to be a paid writer for the now defunct The Gutshot Forum where I also won forum poster of the year back to back. Sick(ish) brag. Reverse sick brag is that I have never won a trophy for *playing* poker!
Back on what is really the biggest story of 2016. I would say Will Kassouf.
Something that most people will not know, and those that do will conveniently never mention, is that in Will's earlier days playing live comps in the UK, circa 2010 to 2013, he was widely ridiculed, criticised and moaned about by the big clique of UK pros and UK live MTT regs.
The ridiculing of him and blasting him for how he played and table talked was perpetuated by live tournament bloggers also doing the same.
I commented at the time that all of these people were basically bullying him and that they were totally clueless because it was so, so obvious that he was using an at the table poker persona as part of his strategy, or perhaps even at that time as a coping mechanism that helped him focus or get into the zone.
I hardly play or played Hold'em comps so was only on the table once with him. From memory it was a £400 comp at The Fox club in, Shaftesbury Avenue, London (in London's West End district). It is now a Genting Casino.
Will was at my table giving it all the spiel, and most of players at the table were giving him the eyes of disapproval or muttering under their breath.
There were also players walking around within earshot, who were not even on our table, also talking and complaining about how he played. Plus the live blogger (I think it was from Blonde Poker) was writing all sorts of bad stuff on their forum about what a disgrace it was how he was conducting himself.
I was of totally the opposite view and I actually thought that his table talk was just amusing and a totally acceptable part of the game. This may be because I was/am somewhat of a table talker myself and because my background is mainly in live cash games where you see and experience a much wider range of characters and therefore a wider spectrum of behaviour at the table.
Nonetheless, what this clique of UK players, aided and abetted by live comp bloggers, was doing was pure and unadulterated gang mentality bullying.
Where are these players now. Well many or most have crashed and burned or drifted out of the game, and the remainder have or may have gone on to be successful pro players but have done so with next to zero style, personality or panache.
As much as I admire and respect the incredible achievements in 2016 of Fedor Holz, David Peters and others, for me the biggest story of the year is Will Kassouf. He shook up, what is a rather boring poker world, in his own inimitable way and in doing so taught a lot of people a valuable life lesson, don't bully, gang up on or ridicule someone for being different or an individual.
Last edited by SageDonkey; 12-19-2016 at 11:31 PM.