Oh duh, correction.

Mason Malmuth is in for creating the world's largest gambling forum.

Mike Sexton as well.

Bill Chen should be higher than all these guys.

Mike McDermott and Worm

Heroscore. Seems pretty new. This thread is new. Your thread title matches ads I've seen from them. What is up with that? I don't think it is subliminal.

I have no idea. Like most people on NVG I am too cheap to pay for whatever service they are offering. Not to mention I never sign up for **** I don't trust, that is not like NY Times level A-Grade legit.

Plus I thought I'd get a more interesting answer from the 2+2 community. I do like their little cartoon character concept... not quite WSOP of Zombies...

Has anyone heroscored? Sounds hardcore...

Speaking of Heroscore, anyone have any ideas who's behind it?

My vote to most influential goes to Dreyfus obv.

I say influent in the way poker is played today is mostly because of Gus

An idea borrowed from Late Night Poker in the UK - huge influence driven by Jesse May, Dave Ulliot, The Hendon Mob, Vicky Coren, etc.

Barney Boatman. I just like saying that.

Hachem

We need a hero to rank people in this way!

We don't need another hero,
We don't want to know the way home,
All we want is life beyond
Thunderdome

My real point actually with this thread was a little more subtle. If the question "Who are the most influential poker players? Are they necessarily the biggest winners?" has been proposed by a sponsor of 2+2 NVG, what are they hoping to achieve by getting people interested in influence ranking? What are they selling? The chance to battle it out on the felt with other influencers? The opportunity to be a cartoon character - have a series made about them, ala Archer?

Does this parallel the GPI route of making a "team" of players and rooting for them ala fantasy sports? And then there is their newest pitch, which seems to be asking who are the influencers on 2+2. Is this to kind of turn something that is egalitarian and whatever into a hotly contested popularity contest?

The latter realization came when it occurred to me that certain threads on 2+2 are probably way more active than articles on PokerNews, CardPlayer, etc., in terms of interaction generated with actual players/enthusiasts.That is to say, the most read discussion topics (I am not talking about tournament updates, which are clicked and re-clicked ad infinitum, or clickbait stories) in poker on any given day occur here.

ya. its billy ainc.

many mentioned in this thread are a joke.

Why Baxter. I've heard that he invented the concept of horses, but that is about it.

Dolly wrote the book
Helmuth consistent winner gr8 personality for the game
Moneymaker right place right time and class act

I'm 34, but relatively new to the game. Also, I'm from Mexico, where poker is generally very unknown.

The very first poker name I heard was Moneymaker when he won, because I had a buddy in college who somehow knew about this stuff. I had seen Rounders but really none of the names, other than Teddy KGB, stuck.

I first started hearing names again in 2011, when I started watching the Main Event on youtube.

So I guess what I'm saying is that my opinion is more as an outsider, more coming from the general public. I will rank the players who I think are the most influential in the outside world:

1) No question, without a doubt, Phil Hellmuth. His confident, cocky-lovable personality is the kind that is beloved in the sports world. Think Landon Donovan, Eric Cantona, Larry Bird, or any other cocky dude. Of course, this cocky personality only works because he has the hardware to back it up. Even when berating opponents he doesn't give the impression that he means it (of course, whether he means it or not is irrelevant here, I am merely stating how he is seen in the outside world). Even when he suffers a bad beat or is pwned, he is a show in himself. That is what you look for in a poker representative. I also would say he is the best know player in the "regular" world

2) Then comes Negreanu. Undoubtedly the second most known player. Definitely not as charismatic as Hellmuth, mainly due to his stubbornness and willingness to give his opinion on every single matter (whether he is right or wrong is irrelevant here). However, he is a great ambassador to the game.

Both of these guys have the requisite TV personality and are fluent enough in front of a camera to be very charming. And that's it... they really are the best known players in the outside world. Even my playing buddies, who have no idea about the players, know about them.

But Baxter, because he put them in?

Sadly, one of the first things I thought of.

Tanking is just unbelievable now. Saw recreational players leave the cash game tables at WSOP exasperated over it. Really hurts the game for all involved - casino, dealers, recreational players, and full time players. Just stop.

Who are you?

I'll have to check your Wikipedia to confirm (I've independently thought about it but came up inconclusive)

For the UK it has to be devilfish, he made great TV and had top earnings for UK players when there were only a handful of $10k events each year. He did win one bracelet but also had 2x 2nds and 3x 3rds. I think and finished with $6m+ in earnings and competed with the best right to the end final tabling ept £10k high roller recently at ept London so has the results to back up his confidence at the tables.

Along with THMob and late night poker, (a program that was scheduled perfect for the pubs closing when there were only 4 channels on UK TV ) this def helped spread the word about poker. Him winning the first series was great too, imagine if some non-descript young American brat won it (helmuth played in the late night poker comps) it might not have had the same impact. You can't argue he had charisma and played the part of a seasoned grinder/ gambler to perfection.

Nice thread, wonder what could have inspired you
(I'll answer the few questions directly related to the HeroScore from the official RankingHero account. )

Personally, I've had a few people directly influence my decision to play poker:
- Johnny Chan, Worm, Teddy KGB
- Moneymaker and Sammy Fara (don't forget Fara, it takes two to Tango)
- Sklanski's Theory of Poker

After that, I saw some moments on TV whose influence can't be denied
- Negreanu & Hansen during WSOP & High stakes poker
- Devilfish at Late Night Poker & WSOP and his one liners. Great!
- Hellmuth basically everytime he loses a pot (or wins it all)
- Tom Dwan on high stakes poker
- Dan Harrington and his books

More recently, some of the big influencers would be
- Isildur, making overbets trendy again
- Bilzerian, love him or hate him, he makes poker sound cool on Instagram, a rare gift

That's far from exhaustive, but at the top of my head, I'll remember those all my life!

Hi again, I see some questions directly related to our HeroScore, and my understanding is it's ok to respond in this case. Here goes:

HeroScore is the influence/prestige ranking we created at RankingHero.com. Most people in the top 10 have been extensively quoted in this thread, telling me we're onto something. It measures three things

• Results (live & online)
• popularity (followers on social media)
• contribution (including 2+2 post count)

As for who we are, there's a bunch of us. I'm Nicolas Levi, I cofounded the company and also post as Nicok7. I've been a pro for many years playing SNG, online cash, and regular at big MTT events. I represented Winamax until I recently quit pro playing to become a father and launch this startup which could be my biggest contribution to the industry (let's hope so!)

I respect that, FWIW RankingHero is 100% free. It's a community site + database of live events + HeroScore ranking.

So what do we do with our lifes
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light
or end in the dark

A++ Sir, will sing again

Fair enough, we'll add it to your achievements under "consultant" and people can upvote it to make it matter more in the algorithm

Fair question. We're obviously on 2+2 to gain reach, tell you about what we do. Basically we notice a lot of tools for top players to get recognition and join a community. We want to cater for those but also be useful to more casual players that may lose overall, but still want a page with their achievements. HeroScore will recognize good behaviour in the industry. If it becomes a standard it will give a platform for players that are "good for the game" to benefit, and thus help the whole game.

We're very passionate dreamers doing our bit to help a game we love. This thread is proof that people care about poker influencers, please check the official RankingHero thread in Internet poker if you want the bigger picture as I don't want to derive this thread too much.

Nicolas Levi