Just read this article on PokerNewsDaily: http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/poker-pros-comment-on-isildur1-and-high-stakes-online-poker-6564/
Tom Schneider (apparently a pro who won the 2007 WSOP player of the year, hosts a poker podcast/blog) says:
“Many have suggested that the players in this high-stakes game are perhaps the best in the world, but Schneider respectfully disagrees. “I can’t comment on whether these players are better than the rest because I haven’t played with them,” Schneider admitted with a laugh. “Confidence is key in poker. If you have built your bankroll up enough to play at this level, one has to be incredibly confident. Having said that, one of the best poker players in the world might be playing in a $1/$2 game right now. He or she may never play higher because they don’t want to.”
I’ll let Larry David handle the “having said that” part of this. I can’t figure out which is worse here – the PokerNewsDaily reporter thinking that Tom Schneider, of all people, is possibly qualified to comment on the skill level of the players playing in the biggest/toughest cash games in the world, or the part where Schneider thinks that one of the best poker players in the world might right now be grinding away at 1/2 NL. What a joke. Could you be possibly more out of touch? I guess the media cluelessly perpetuating the myth that these guys are the top minds in poker… it’s starting to get to me. I bet Tom Schneider is a fine person and doing good things for poker, but he and others like him are really out of touch with high level poker and aren’t even close to poker experts anymore. In reality, a lot of these television pros and the sponsored pros repping online poker sites don’t even play online poker, nor could they beat small stakes online games.
Having said that, at least Sebok is keeping it real and acknowledging that something truly crazy is happening on Full Tilt right now. Because it is, and it’s really interesting poker. And no, a 1/2 NL player could not win if any of those players dropped down to play them at 1/2. It would be like their cards were face up.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only sane one and everyone else is crazy. As for who’s the best? Well, I know the reason I’m not playing in those HUNL games right now is because I can’t afford to (yet), not because I don’t want to…
Tom Schneider’s nickname is DonkeyBomber…he’s fairly well known I would say, considered a good mixed games player. But I agree his comments are wayyyy off base.
Personal bias aside, do you think it would be better for poker as a whole if the current regime continued, in that the media and Joe Public view tournament fish with a good amount of TV coverage as the top echelon of the poker world or if the media and Joe Public started to view the top online (and possible live, though I have no idea how we define that) cash game players as the most authoritative voice?
I’m the best player according to Schneider! MLIG
krantz i can never get over how cool and non dorky you are
pj – i’m well known in the NL cash game world but if someone interviewed me about the big mixed games i wouldn’t pretend to be an expert!
inavacuum – well… that’s a tough question to answer. people love tournament poker and that’s a great thing. it’s great because literally anyone can win any given tournament. it’s an interesting world in its own right. but the most skillful poker is being played in the high stakes cash games… NL HU, 6m, LHE, PLO, HORSE, you name it. i’m hard pressed to say that it wouldn’t be better for poker if the public was getting more accurate information from great young players and leaders in poker. the traditional poker stories are pretty played out and boring. Joe Cada wins the Main Event, youngest winner ever, goes on Letterman and does a terrific interview. Tom Dwan gets signed to Team Full Tilt and then plays one of the sickest matches online in the history of heads up poker. people are starting to notice, and it’s good for poker.
pmp – i know, right!
If Tom meant the most “Talented” player could be playing 1-2, he might have a point as players do have to make a number of stops when moving up the ranks.
I also think great players may not want to play the absolute nosebleeds…but no chance they don’t want to move past 1-2
Tom Schneider is one of the biggest fish alive, in that he seems to have infinite money to lose in high stakes live mix games. He also loses infinite playing mix and triple draw on stars (luvgamble), he used to play like 50/100, sadly he must have learned something and now only donates at 10/20 and 15/30.
One random note to this blog entry is that in my limited interaction with him during the WSOP ME, Tom was a really humble and nice guy at the tables, so it was kind of a shock reading the interview because I considered him one of the few over-40 guys who seemed to “get it” with respect to poker knowledge.
So I think he conducted the interview under the pretense of his own poker world, that being usually interacting with live fish in a live tournament and mixed game environment. So, he could definitely have a skewed perception of the internet poker environment.
Basically, I wanted to say that I don’t think he was being arrogant. One could read the interview and think his tone was Hellmuthian in its disrespect towards internet kids. I think it was more along the line of polite ignorance.
Krantz will you play me for 10k hands at 1/2nl headsup so that you can prove this?
Thank you!
- Squizzel