finally a normal response ahahah
Big call with ben86, tbh i expected more people to say OTB was the best (at least i always thought he was?)

I dont think that post is totally unreasonable, the top 4 mentioned is pretty accurate (although not sure how much live experience Isildur has?)
If were only talking about live then i think guys like Davidi Kitai, Charlie Carrell and even Erik Seidel are some of the best live players, i think they would hold up well in a live game vs the very best online players

Also want to shoutout Phil Galfond. I know he doesnt really play high stakes anymore but i still think he's world class and could easily be at the very top if he was studying enough.

yeah natural ability can go a long way, but im sure Isildur's technical ability is extremely good as well. As far as mixed games go, i think if the top 10 NL players all studied mixed games really hard they would probbaly all be in the top 20 mixed game players within a year or two.

I'm pretty good.

I'm pretty good.

Tom Dwan. He'll bluff the best in the world live and get away with it. Enough said.

Dwan is still great but not playing online in recent years is significant

My personal Top 20 GOAT Poker players (all formats; no specific order)

Hilton Laborda
Jamie Gold
Beth Shak
Jan Boye
Annette Obrestad
Daniel Negreanu
Salomon Ponte
Curtis Rystadt
Darwin Moon
Brandon Cantu
Xuan Liu
Jared Huggins
Humberto Brenes
Hevad Khan
Chris Moneymaker
Leon Tsoukernik
Matt Marafioti
Duane Alexander
Sandra Naujoks
Marcel Luske

Yup, he's one of those old live pro's who completely reinvented themselves

Here he is pre piosolver:


After pio:


yeah, quite the difference

Can't believe how toxic this forum is..

fyp

cool use of spoiler

Whoever post after me

Winner

All-around probably Trueteller.

Many top level pros specialize, often HU NLHE or PLO. The mixed games, especially The Big Game, are designed to put such specialists out of their specialty. Also of course, any rich whale that wants to play against the best is welcome I would assume.

I propose that the players that can survive and thrive in that format are the best overall poker players. They play all formats, and the table selection is predetermined such that pros and whales all meet together at the same table.
Among the specialists that go to Macau, they are really specialized in the high stakes deep stacked nature of poker. I would be surprised if those games are much different than Vegas. Still whales being exploited, just wayyy higher stakes.

My list of all stars:

Otb_redbaron
Trueteller
Ben86
Sauce123
Ike Haxton

Honorable mentions:

Isildur
Patrik Antonius
Jungleman

Antonius but no Ivey or OMGClayAiken?

I think the best poker player in the world has to be Timofey Kuznetsov or Ben Sulksy. They're both world class at NL, PLO, and 8game.

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order):

Daniel Cates
Isaac Haxton
Alexander Kostritsyn

Antonious was actually winning online post black friday, unlike Ivey or Galfond.

so it seems general consensus is that Trueteller is the best. Jungle and Ike both tanks, dont know who Kostritsyn is

Also if were talking about 8game, we gotta give a mention to luke schwartz, i dont know much about his game in all the different variants but i've heard he beasts everything? can someone confirm?

lol

the best bot.

also if anyone needed convincing that Bryn Kenny is top 10 ITW youve got some more proof