I was watching Joey Ingrams videos about Phil Helmuth, Tom Dwan and OTB being texas holdem poker gods (lol), and it made me wonder what the actual list of top 10 NL players in the world would look like. Obviously its impossible to know for sure, but i think it makes for interesting debate.
If i had to take a guess mine would be something like (in no order, any format):

Fedor Holz
Dan Colman
OTB Redbaron
Fish2013
Jungleman
Trueteller
Bryn Kenny
Isildur
Christoph Vogelsang
Ben86 (couldnt pick a 10th out of him, Dan Smith, Olivier, Bonomo, Sauce,
Seiver etc.)

I might be missing some online guys, only really know much about the top few

What do people make of the exclusion of Phil Ivey? I think its hard to really know how he compares against these guys today. Also do people think more live players like Esfandiari/Negreanu deserve a place?

I think we have no idea how good Ivey is these days. And I think there is as much of a reason to include players like Antonio or Dnegs as there is there is to make this thread.

jerry yang

he just missed my list at no.11, he clearly didnt pray hard enough

So Jamie Gold is No. 12?

Seeing as he won 12 million dollars i guess no.12 must be right for jamie

Honestly among the top level players I don't think you can really say X is better than Y. There is too much variance in the game, and I imagine the edges among the elite tournament pros are so small that any one those named players could win a tournament featuring all of them on any given day.

Also your list is a mixed of online and live players, and from what I have seen they play very differently in a lot of cases.

yeah it might be more interesting to measure best players by giving them a rating /100. Say 50 is a decent 1/2 grinder, 75 is a winning midstakes online player, and 85 is a good high stakes online/live player, all the guys in my top 10 would have a rating of at least 98

But there is still edge amongst top players. I imagine other top tier guys like Jonathan Duhamel would be rated about 87-88, and someone like Doug Polk around 91-92. If these numbers are close to reality that difference of about 8-9 points between them and the very best is pretty big

OP, asking the questions that need answered.

Like half this list are live mtt players lol >> something's wrong with your list

"Who are REALLY the best poker players in the world?"

Err at what game [?]

Cash?

Live?

HS?

HU?

Each class of game would have a different list - even if it were possible to know what that list actually is

So the question is broken

The answer not possible anyway

I think a better question [for you] would be...

"Who are REALLY the mostest favourite poker players in the world?"

Gus Hansen

Nobody is the best. Everybody is solid. All the top players are so immensely skillful that it comes down to luck. Whoever is the biggest luck-box, that's who is the best.

1. Hashtag King
2. Eli Elezra
3. Dan Balzeran
4. Eric Molina
5. Texas Dolly
6. Phil Ruffin
7. Ryan Riess
8. Limon
9. Le Chiffre
10. Mariatik

Eric Molina?? Really???

What about James Bond?

The collection of ~10 guys who will sit in 25/50+ games on stars without a clear spot at the table.

edit:
so off the top of my head, something like

otb
fish
trueteller
katya
oborra
limitless
Linuslove
educapoker
vogelsang
invoker

Define 'best'. Someone who doesn't have the strongest technical skills but can get into super juicy games because of charisma and wins loads vs someone who has great technical skills but ends up only in really tough games and wins but not at the same rate as the first guy. Who's better?

I'm probably up there somewhere

David Benyamine
Toby Maquire
George Costanza
That Brazilian soccer player with one name
Moneymaker
Matt Damon in Rounders
Guy Laliberte
Clonie Gowen
Justin Schwartz
Me

Nah, his nlhe is rusty. The game passed him by. Barely top 40 these days

Will Kasoof

The ones who can get in the best games.

curtis rystadt

Players beating the micros because you can't beat the rake in those games.