Chris Moneymaker - started the poker boom
Doyle Brunson - Wrote the bible of poker
Phil Hellmuth - most Bracelets, love him or hate him everyone talks about him
Daniel Negreanu - Public Face of pokerstars. was in movies (x men origins:wolverine) and a Katy Perry music video (waking up in vegas), Charismatic, made a poker video game (stacked)


As great as Stu Ungar was, what did he really contribute to poker?
It was in an old era and if not for his demons, he may have been the face of poker. He legitimately could have had over 20 bracelets. Stories about him were unreal

Doyle
Phil Ivey
DNegs
Phil Hellmuth

Combination of results with impact. Even my grandparents know who these 4 are.


I have always thought the Moneymaker effect was a bit overrated. It was more of an ESPN effect and the way they created storylines and characters and made you care about the players. It certainly helped that a total amateur won it and let them market it as a game that anyone can win, but I think it was going to happen regardless.

I disagree. ESPN definitely was a large part of it, however it was the perfect storm. The average joe who won a ~$40 online satellite and won the event. He eliminated Johnny Chan and Phil Ivey en route to the final table. Poker could have boomed in the prior year, however Robert Varkonyi did not appear to have the charisma.

Also the name Moneymaker. You couldn't have a more marketable name (Jamie Gold aside).

This was one of the first televised poker events, even though the WPT began airing prior, that made poker interesting. Between the background stories, selective hands shown, the hole card camera and Lon and Norman's commentary, you couldn't have asked for a better production.

Thats kinda my point. Varkonyi should have been a bigger deal but the ESPN broadcast was awful so no one wanted to watch. No hole cards, no storylines, just a commentator relaying the action. And 2002 was the largest ME at that time, surpassed by 2003 and so on, so there already was a boom in the works. It was the biggest jump from 2003 to 2004, 800 entries up to 2500, so he added something, but it was already a trend.

Poker still booms if Phil Ivey or Farha ends up winning that final table, I think. Maybe in a different way.

I like Chris, but his importance to the boom is overstated. If Ivey won the MJ comparisons would have been real, and hold'em would've instantly been the coolest game around.

3 words:

Wild Bill Hickock

You're welcome people. Now, I drop mic and exit stage left.

Online:

Dwan
OTB
Linus
Stefan

Overall:

Phil H
Phil Ivey
Ungar
Doyle

I don't think Ungar should be on there.
His genius is undeniable and his story is about as compelling as it gets (the tragic super-genius is a storyline we all love) but the fact remains, the dudes poker career wasn't that illustrious and he could be found begging for stakes at any given point towards the latter part of his life.

Disagree.
The everyman storyline is what made the boom happen. Its what brought every backwards-hat wearing bro to the poker world and why craigslist is now littered with used poker tables.

If the poker boom was a nuke, Moneymaker's ME win was the high explosive that sent the beryllium of televised poker crashing into the plutonium that was internet poker.

Replace Durr with the pic of Helmuth riding the hot dog boat, and replace that Ivey with Ivey stoned in Montreal, and youve got it.

Phil Hellmuth, pfft.

They don't call em dead man hands for nothing! Try reaching your poker potential and getting a bracelet after receiving a shot in the back of the head.

Benny Binion = Washington
Doyle Brunson = Jefferson
Phil Ivey = Roosevelt
Jungleman = Lincoln

I think I'm right on the first three. The forth name needs to be an online pro with a reputation and a personality.

Doc Holiday is a must.

Holliday was playing poker with a well-liked local man named Ed Bailey. Holliday caught Bailey "monkeying with the dead wood" or the discard pile, which was against the rules. According to Earp, Holliday reminded Bailey to "play poker", which was a polite way to caution him to stop cheating. When Bailey made the same move again, Holliday took the pot without showing his hand, which was his right under the rules. Bailey immediately went for his pistol, but Holliday whipped out a knife from his breast pocket and "caught Bailey just below the brisket" or upper chest. Bailey died and Holliday, new to town, was detained in his room at the Planter's Hotel.

Imagine a dentist at your table handing cheating like that.

The former is irrelevant, the latter is why poker boomed

Can't have a online list without Isildur1

he's up there for sure.

I can't take off Dwan/OTB/Linus

Stefan is newer - but the way he dismantled limitless over 50k hands puts him there for me.

Dwan, sure. But with OTB, Linus, and Stefan you’re just picking the Next Big Thing over and over. You’ll probably have someone new next year.

Isildur is a no-brainer over all three of those guys.

PA and Lars Luzak online. Those balla's were playing £250 / £500 on Betfair & Prima before Linus was born. Lars still bossing high stakes cash and MTT's in 2021.

So far 100% of the posters here have included Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson in their lists. Stu Ungar, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel, Tom Dwan and Chris Moneymaker have had mentions.

I'm surprised I'm the only one who has included Chip Reese who was the Phil Ivey of his time and never played any game lower than the biggest game in the room his entire career from the late 1970s to the 2000s. Ivey considered him to be his hero.

No mentions of Johnny Moss, Dan Harrington, Billy Baxter, and T.J. Cloutier. But most shocking of all. Zero super high rollers. No Kenney, Bonomo, Haxton, Koon, nada. Could this be due to the nostalgia effect or are there other reasons. Afterall, some of these guys have been dominant for 10 years and have been successful for more than that.

Was Stu Ungar the greatest poker player of all time when he was slumming around the Shoe in the 90s begging for a "$500 stake" that he'd promptly go spend on something other than poker?

There are a lot of dudes who are/were deadly, scary, that you wouldn't want sitting on your left or right, and on any given day could beat anyone on earth but had management-gaps in their lives that ultimately influenced their game... and if you recognized those gaps, they were exploitable.

He wasn't just the most talented tournament poker player in his time, he was also the best at Gin Rummy.

He was so good at rummy that if he entered a tournament, all other entrants would drop out.

I don't feel Stu Ungar stood the test of time, which is why I wouldn't include him. I believe his run was 1980-1990. After I don't think he wasn't as active.

It's longevity though.

OTB was the unanimous best player in the world for about 5 years
Linus was the same but probably for 3 years

Isildur was super talented but wasn't around for that long before he faded away.

You can't put someone on your Mount Rushmore that doesn't even play anymore and is still alive.

Isildur had pretty good online results last year