Pogchamps is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. Bad chess I can relate to and I get to be stupefied by zoomer streamer culture.



Daniel got caught flat footed a bit. He probably was told this was a chill tournament with a varied group of streamers getting a few tips from master level players when in reality half the people in the field are professional gamers who have been grinding in the lab 20-40 hrs per week and have been doing serious opening prep.

He mentioned offhand he'd have to improve for the knockout phase. If he drops the gambits he has a chance. Maybe learn some offbeat setups so when they come out expecting him play some e4 gambit he hits them with a 1.b3 Nimzo-Larsen setup or something else slow but dangerously goofy.

Yeah, no...

At dneg's level opening prep does not matter at all

At that level we are talking basic mistakes and not falling into traps. Not gaining some small advantage 10 moves deep.


Maybe it isn't usually dispositive but it matters. It matters less and less the further down the rating ladder, but still matters. If IMs are playing and one flat drops a piece in the opening the game is over. If I'm playing Dnegs and make that blunder I'd go from maybe 60% to win to 30%. I can very well overcome it, but it matters.

Even ignoring glaring mistakes in the opening, my game with Dnegs would be most like be decided by blunders, but it is easier to blunder from a crap position or even an unfamiliar one.

If we were 400ish rather than 1200ish it might not matter at all. We are pretty bad but not total muppets.

Opening prep is just a shortcut, a way of perfecting your first moves, if you like studying.

If you understand the game to a somewhat deeper level, you'll be fine figuring out most of it over the board and from your own experience. That's how most players do it to quite a high level in amateur circles.

lol no

did you watch xqc during the stream? He came up with ...d5 kind of on the spot, unless he's completely acting (which I suppose is possible). Further, I've played through a bunch of the games; the openings are the least important part of most of the games. There are literally pieces and mate in ones hanging in most games. Every single second that the participants spend on opening prep would be better spent playing puzzle rush.

Further, rest assured Daniel has more than enough access to coaching resources if he wants to use them.

How dare you question Elbow's opinions. He is 1200 strength

he's a fav over ludwig and charlie

https://twitter.com/brandoncantu/sta...11818228408320

it's like these guys are hellbent on making their bad reputations concrete so that they can stop having to hide what absolute toolboxes they are

They're all such douche bags. Ivey is the only one I'd wanna have a beer with. These guys are such nerds

I legitimately know nothing about this guy or his various beefs so please feel free to educate me, but is "I actually paid most ppl back recently. Thank you. Except @Jason Mercier haven't gotten there yet, one day I hope." not a stand alone wild thing to say?

He has $12 mill but still owes mercier?

He doesn't have 12 mill, he wants to crowd fund most of it from his rich business friends. He claims to have a mill or so though which is weird when he also admits to having unpaid debts. He's a weird guy.

poker comunity is full of trash people like these, its so sad, pretty sure ivey and patrick and galfond are only cool people, this ego showoff in 2021 from someone over 25 is so cringe

It's just you they don't offer it to Daniel.
Take a hint

Does Brandon drink soy milk?

He only drinks what his backers tell him.

Why did he photoshop his eyeballs ocean blue?

Douche meter went way off the charts with this tweet.

Wow, this douchebag is totally tone death. Still in the middle of a pandemic, thousands of people out of work, and he is putting somebody on blast on social media abusing the little power he does have to try to shame an establishment to serve soy milk? Soy !@#$en milk?!?!?!

I remember how devastated I was when Aria stopped serving Miller High Life a few years ago. But for !@#$ sakes I couldn't imagine doing what denigs did.

wait, is that a serious tweet? probably the douchiest tweet i have ever read in my life rofl. can twoplustwo mods delete anything related to this guy plz, please dont make such a creature evan 10% more popular. i beg you.

negreanu looks like most likeable guy on earth compared with this guy haha

If you want to know what kind of guy Brandon Cantu is... during an interview in which he was at a final wsop table he said, and I quote " I've never read a single book in my life" as if it were a badge of honor or
Something.

funny thing is in the brief span of time before he went busto he was perhaps one of the most entertaining tv mtt players, there's a spot in the wsop where he 3! pre with 27o and when the guy 4! jams on him he tanks and does the math and finds a call based on the pot odds

given the way he played poker and carried himself on tv before busto, i wasn't surprised to learn a few years back that he's a mega douche, but it's still sad to see when he does things like that to remind me once again

guy made truly entertaining poker play on tv, obviously wasn't good enough to make him money in the long term but man it was fun watching the methed out version of selbst

Yep, "Any Two Cantu"!

I agree with this he was definitely fun to watch.