Bond18 – Around the World in 90 Days: Day 66

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

Thanks to drinking several glasses of water, I do not have the vicious hangover I should today. I do not know how much I drank last night (it wasn’t that much), but it was enough to fuck up a stomach as weak as mine.

I have today off before I play in the WSOP Main Event. Everyone in the poker world talks about the World Series Main like it’s the end all of tournaments, and I am not a member of that thought process. To me, the WSOP main is just another tournament, albeit with an incredible structure and massive field filled with god awful players. The fact that the winner of this one tournament is crowned a poker champion and made into a minor celebrity for the rest of his life is pretty absurd, especially considering nobody very good at poker has won it since poker hit the boom years (yes I know, many consider Raymer and Hachem good, but at the time they won they were fairly raw tournament players.) That two complete nobodies who are more or less useless on the marketing side of things have won in the last two years does even more to diffuse the importance of this one tournament, yet whoever wins it this year will yet again be thrown into the spotlight and expected to represent poker as a whole.

I grabbed a copy of Bluff magazine at the Rio the other day. I was glancing through the rankings of the tournament player of the year and, at this point, those things make me entirely disgusted in live poker as a whole. The problem with live poker in general is that the whole community is results oriented and nobody gives a shit about the actual quality of a player, and even worse, his quality as a person. In first place in the rankings is Men “The Master” (and I cannot emphasize “The Master” with enough irony simply in text) Nguyen, who not only is an entirely average tournament poker player, but is a well known scum bag and fairly well established cheat. The fact that this man is celebrated as an excellent player demonstrates everything that is wrong with live poker.

In the world of online poker, everyone is informed enough to understand who is excellent and who is sane and not a complete fuckwit. Just about everyone seriously involved in the tournament scene accepts that Isaac “WestmenloAA” Baron is the best player out there, despite his recent results. In the world of online poker, anyone who cheats, schemes or lies is so quickly outed and publicly shamed that his reputation is ruined for quite some time and his ability to gain respect and sponsorship is ruined for a considerable amount of time (outside Sorel Mizzi.) Meanwhile, pieces of shit like Men are given accolades and the general poker public thinks that he and those like him are legitimate poker champions. Fuck him and everyone of his caliber.

Unfortunately, this is not an industry that rewards integrity and excellent play. This is an industry that rewards results and marketability, though that doesn’t mean the sponsors are wrong for endorsing those players. Just because Phil Hellmuth is hilariously awful at poker over 30 big blinds (and under 10) and a jabbering asshole who spews nothing but self promotion doesn’t mean UB shouldn’t be having him as their face and ambassador. Just because UltimateBet has lied to every single one of its customers in one of the greatest scandals in our industry doesn’t mean there’s anyone there to hold them accountable. Just because Men is a notorious dealer abuser and scum bag who hotel security found had tournament chips in his hotel room doesn’t mean he stops getting camera time.

Please, don’t read this entry and infer that I think I am the one deserving of the attention and accolades these people get having just one fairly small live tournament win. I have not accomplished anywhere near enough in the poker industry to do so, and I continued to play on UB even after the super-user scandal was unearthed. My play is nowhere near as good as so many of my online MTT contemporaries, plus who knows how many online cash players. Don’t think I am so naïve as to think whether a person get’s attention, sponsorship, and congratulations should entirely have to do with excellent play and major tournament wins. Fuck if I don’t want to see some consequences for those who spit on the industry though.

So who is deserving of appreciation in my opinion? Guys like Dan “Ansky” Stern, who besides being a phenomenal player goes out of his way to speak out on cheating and get people talking on the issue. Guys like Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza who, on top of being one of the best tournament players in the world, share valuable information in their videos and make an effort to notify the sites when they stake anyone and enter the same tournament, yet still inform the sites when they are privy to information about cheats. Guys like Adam “Ajunglen” Junglen who have overcome every possible obstacle in life on the way to becoming one of the sickest players out there, even if he doesn’t put in the volume to gain recognition. These are the guys I want to see getting congratulations, getting sponsorship money, getting their faces in magazines. I’m sick of old school scum bags who give poker it’s somewhat deserved shady reputation amongst the public. I want some new poker idols, even if they are all younger than me.

I’m too drunk for this shit.

Popularity: 2% [?]