Yeah, picking an obscure person for "Mt Rushmore" is a bit of a fail. Still, I wanted to give credit to a guy who one of the all-time cash game GOATs. Rick ​plays and crushes the highest stakes games in the world and has probably won more money on the poker table than anyone listed in this thread. He reportedly won 40 mil from Andy Beal, and Chamath Palihapitiya said on PAD that he's down ~50 mil to Rick. Dwan said it's not uncommon for Rick to be the only winner at the end of the night. Best of all, he's doing it keyser soze style, with the people he crushes usually think Rick is a whale - and/or funny and fun af to play with - and can't wait to play with him again. And he's not just owning billionaire fish - he finished 4th, 3rd, and 4th in three $1MM one-drop tourneys in fields stocked with GTO wizards. He's basically reached the absolute highest level of poker

good synopsis.

Having spent a night in Paris and Pamela Anderson has to deserve extra credit.

major riddle
andy beal
guy laliberte
gus hansen

Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Chip Reese
Interesting that Phil Hellmuth liked my tweet replying to Pokernews, especially when I left him off
https://twitter.com/PokerNews/status...31342072995846

That's pretty humble because I think Doyle has a good case for goat over any of them.

The Mount Rushmore of Women Poker Players

Jennifer Harman

Betty Carey

Kathy Leibert

Vanessa Selbst

Honorable Mentions: Annie Duke, Barbara Enright, Jennifer Tilly, Suzie Isaacs, Linda Johnson, Maria Ho

...extremely difficult list to make. Only Harman is a sure thing.

Hi Reggie:

Cissy Russo/Bottoms should be on the list.

Best wishes,
Mason

victoria coren mitchell

and she left stars after they announced to add casino games, shows integrity

Gus Hansen hasn't done anything since he hit every hand he played on the WPT for a while there. I love that book with his thought process on how to be terrible. The mount rushmore.. Doyle, Chip, Ivey, and Stu.

Shaun Deeb ? Not even an honorable mention ???

Tilly should be on top 2 of women mount Rushmore.

A vague, indirect reference to Twin Peaks ?

Of course Doyle is not going to mention himself and everyone knows he belongs there. I would expect him to mention the other 3, who he has played many hours with, but it is interesting he mentioned Seidel, who is mainly a tournament player. That does say something.

It seems like the legend of Stu Ungar exceeds the reality of Stu Ungar. A lot of the players from back then didn't seem quite as impressed with his poker game as all the stories and tall tales would indicate. The general consensus is that he was a much better gin rummy player. He obviously had some savant-like capabilities with gambling and cards, but may be more like the Len Bias of poker than the Michael Jordan of poker when you factor in instability and wasted potential. Winning the 3 WSOP titles is obviously historic and it prevents him from being a pure "What if?" type of hypothetical, but those were small fields and you get the impression from comments that he was a bit of a cash game fish with a lot of leaks.

Chip seems to be the player's player. Doyle bridged the gap from old school to post-boom, and has been a huge name for decades. Ivey is undoubtedly the face of post-2003 poker when you look at everything in aggregate (general fame, tournaments, cash game success, online play, memorable TV moments).

That leaves just one spot and it's an interesting dilemma. Do you go with an old school legend like Moss who had a big reputation in his era and helped pioneer the game? Do you take another post-boom poker-famous stalwart like Hellmuth or Negreanu? Do you think about some of the new school crushers?

If we assume that poker post-2003 is far more relevant and popular than poker pre-2003, I'm inclined to put another new-ish name on there, either Hellmuth or Negreanu. It's not that they're the best players, but they've won lots of stuff and have been fixtures promoting the game to the general public. The bracelet thing makes me lean towards PH since he just has more significant wins in his history.

So mine is probably Doyle, Chip, Ivey, and Hellmuth.

I feel a little gross putting PH on there because he's kind of clowny, but he has been one of the biggest names in poker for the past ~20-30 years and you can't really deny it, even if lots of players have hit a higher level of knowledge/skill.

Strange to see all the Hellmuth love. Maybe it's because of his recent headsup prowess versus Esfandiari and Negreanu.

He did well but no way he should be on there.

Just depends on what you value. If you ask people on the street to name five poker players, he'll be one of the top five names mentioned. He grinds the WSOP every year and is a fixture on televised poker. He's done a lot to promote the game and is a memorable personality.

Do I think he's one of the top few players ever on pure skill alone? No, but even if you don't rate him, he won the WSOP Main and has the career bracelet record. That makes it kind of hard to portray him as a 100% gimmick.

So I think he has a solid case if you weigh a variety of variables such as notoriety, longevity, and results. Also one of the most entertaining players to watch, albeit because he's kind of this 1/1 spergy insecure egomaniac oddball train wreck.

Some recent developments have caused me to make changes in my original list...

Future School Mt. Rushmore of Poker:

Ali Imsirovic
Landon Tice
Ethan "Rampage Poker" Yau replaces Sean Perry
Linus Love

G.O.A.T. Mt. Rushmore of Poker:

Chip Reese
Doyle Brunson
Phil Ivey
Phil Hellmuth replaces Stu Ungar

The Bosnian Bandit is really inching up the G.O.A.T. Mt. Rushmore at a very fast pace...

https://news.google.com/topstories?h...=US&ceid=US:en

This WSOP 2022 could be his chance to solidify his achievements...

• Dan Bilzerian
  
• Chase Berger (Swede Tooth)
  
• Matt Damon
  
• Poker Bunny

Doyle
Johnny Moss
Chip Reese
Ivey
Durrr
Galfond

LOL LANDON TICE???WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU? THIS KID CANT EVEN BEAT BILL PERKINS. 80% OF PPL WHO POST ON THIS THREAD WOULD SEND HIM BACK HOME TO HIS HAWT MOMS BASEMENT.

If it really comes down to these 5 and only 4 places, I believe Ivey has played his way off vs. Stu. I realize Stu and Hellmuth are both on the short list as tournament players and Ivey was definitely across the board in the "Naughts". But from what I have seen of Ivey recently, he is off my GOAT list vs. both Ungar and Hellmuth.

Ivey now appears to be a sad shadow of former player he was. Whether this is due to finances, boredom, game passed him by, something else. He just isn't there. Now if he can and chooses to revert back to a level similar to where he was, I can change my mind. But he has to show me.

Hellmuth's performance at WSOP over the decades incl. this past one plus the head's up challenges (though a ridiculously small sample and not against the best of the best), has increased his stock in the realm of tournament poker.

Stu OTOH, did not allow us to really judge him over time. And maybe he would not have stood that test of time. We will never know. But he record in large buy-in tournaments (for his day) is literally unmatched and while it is also a ridiculously small sample size and the game was very different, IMO, he is WAY above variance in that realm.

So unless Ivey reverts to what he was, this is an easy choice for me. But now if he did revert, this would be a very tough 5 to narrow down to 4.

That's gonna be a very crowded mount.

Emergency Update for the Future School Mt. Rushmore of Poker:


Michael Adammo replaces Ali Imsirovic
Landon Tice
Ethan "Rampage Poker" Yau replaces Sean Perry
Linus Love