A few months ago I made a post about whether Tom Dwann is the greatest poker player in the world. Maybe I was getting carried away after watching a lot of High Stakes Poker, since I’m now left wondering whether Phil Ivey is the greatest player. Does it matter? Am I being fickle? No and yes are the answers to those questions. I mean, there are many world class poker players and picking out the best is a waste of time - but I’m here to waste time, so what the hell. Let’s put forward the case for Phil Ivey…

Of course I’m only talking about Phil Ivey because of his amazing run at this year’s WSOP - where he bagged two Bracelets, taking his total WSOP bracelet collection to an impressive seven! Of course winning two WSOP bracelets in any series is a fine achievement, even if there are too many WSOP events these days. I’m sure Ivey would have been more than satisfied with his WSOP 2009 performance if failed to make an impact in “the Big One” - but he makes the final table and will be back in November, as one of the November Nine. Amazing!

I love the fact that a poker superstar of Ivey’s calibre has reached the final table. Of course the WSOP Main Event turns ordinary poker players into recognized names, but it’s been a few years since a top name pro has reached the final, and I can’t wait. Even though he could do with a few more chips, you have to put him as one of the favorites - he is used to the pressure, and of course he has the game.

I’ve been a Phil Ivey fan for a few years now, and I’m sure many of you have seen this clip before, but it’s a great example of why he’s a poker icon:

To be fair, Jackson shows some real class in this hand too. They both display huge balls, and it’s one of my favorites. I include this clip since I was over at Pokerology.com, where they have a “Masterclass” feature and this video is used, along with some really insightful hand analysis. Check out the Phil Ivey Masterclass over at Pokerology.com.

Tom Dwan has been on the poker scene for a while now, but I had never really paid too much attention to his offline exploits. I was familiar with his name and had seen reports of the online high stakes cash games for a while. But I’d not seen the guy on TV, so I couldn’t identify too much with him – unlike poker pros like Ivey, Negreanu, Hellmuth, etc, who I’ve watched and admired for many years.

This is the first time I saw a clip of Tom Dwan, at some point last year:

While Hellmuth doesn’t cover himself in glory with his usual antics, my first impression of Dwan wasn’t so great. He looked uncomfortable in the live poker environment, avoiding eye contact and so forth. He was also a bit too cocky for my liking. I thought to myself “stick to online poker kid”.

However, my opinion on Tom Dwan has totally changed since I watched that first clip on YouTube. He’s had a lot more publicity recently due to the Durrrr Challenge (which might finish before Christmas!), but my opinion has been shaped by his recent appearances on High Stakes Poker, Season 5. He has been a joy to watch, and has utterly owned the table.

Here’s a piece of truly world class play from Tom Dwan:

I’m not basing my thoughts on just one or two hands, but his overall play. He has been nothing short of magnificent. It’s funny to look back at the NBC Heads-Up Championship video and seeing a somewhat geeky guy, clearly uncomfortable with the surroundings, and then to see how he has evolved on High Stakes Poker – totally bossing the table. This kid can certainly play poker! I’m a big Tom Dwan fan, that’s for sure.

Tom Dwan has been lighting the poker world up over the past year.  He’s been involved in some of the biggest pots in history on Full Tilt Poker and he continues to rake in tens of thousands of dollars every day he plays.  Now “durrrr” is taking things up a notch by issuing a challenge to anyone in the poker world who can beat him in a minimum of 50,000 hands played on four tables simultaneously. 

The specifics of the challenge are that the games will be played in $200/$400 limits and, if Dwan gets beat, he will pay the winner $1,500,000.  The deal comes in the fact that, if someone loses to Dwan, they will only have to pay him $500,000.  And even though durrrr is quite the player, you knew that this deal was too sweet for the world’s top players to pass up.

And it may be THE top player in the world who accepts Dwan’s challenge as Phil Ivey has agreed to take him on.  Ivey said on Barry Greenstein’s radio show, “I’ve never posted a challenge like this.  I’m just assuming that everyone knows I’m going to play them – I’m going to play every game.  I’ll play anybody, at every game there is. Most of the time I start off as the underdog, I feel like. Eventually I’ll figure them out, figure out what they’re doing, make good enough adjustments to where I’m a favorite against them.”  Of course, Patrik Antonius and David Benyamine are also interested in playing him which makes things even more interesting.

I think that durrrr will have his hands full with whomever he chooses to play in this challenge since there are so many great players out there.  But Dwan has also probably been the most successful cash game player over the last year since I’ve heard he made about $10 million in 2008.  It will definitely be interesting to see how he does against his opponent.

Clonie Gowen has already had her name smeared through the media in the past when her byline appeared with an article that was totally plagiarized.  According to both her and the ghostwriter, he had copied and pasted an article word for word and was going to change all of it, but he forgot to change the first paragraph before he submitted it.  When the article ran, someone noticed it was plagiarized and the story hit poker websites everywhere.

Well now Gowen has her name in the news again for her lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker.  In her lawsuit, she contends that she was offered 1% of Tiltware (Full Tilt’s owner) in exchange for her representing Full Tilt in tournaments and other events.  According to her, she agreed to the deal and began wearing Fult Tilt gear at all the poker events she attended. 

But a problem arose when Full Tilt began issuing checks to their player representatives in May of 2007; Clonie Gowen did not receive one of these checks.  So she began questioning part owner Howard Lederer on the status of her ownership and/or payment.  Lederer offered a $250,000 check, but she refused it since a 1% ownership in Full Tilt Poker is worth much, much more than this.  The company is valued at $4 billion so 1% of that would be $40 million which is definitely an incentive to turn down $250K.  The question is did she really get offered a deal this sweet?

Now, I think that she must have been due something if Lederer was willing to offer her $250,000 for representing the company but there is no way they would give her a 1% stake in the company.  Daniel Negreanu said it best when he stated, “There is just no freaking way they’d offer her 1%.  I hope she ends up with what she deserves….nothing.  She’s ruined herself with this move.  I’ll never speak to her again and I’m sure I’m not alone.”

Full Tilt has filed a motion for dismissal, but the case will probably go to trail.  And the only reason I think it will go to trial is because courts will give her something for the 4 years she represented the company.  However, that something surely won’t be $40 million.

You won’t have to worry about being able to find poker on TV right now since the game seems to be extremely popular among television executives nowadays.  ESPN is airing the World Series of Poker Europe, the World Poker Tour has kicked off a new season on Fox Sports Net, and High Stakes Poker will be debuting on GSN very soon.  On January 12th, you’ll be able to add another show to the mix when the Best Damn Poker Show airs its second season on Fox Sports Net. 

This show features a really interesting format since Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke teach contestants how to play the game of poker on each episode.  The cool twist is that a person gets booted off of the show each week which really adds a reality show flavor to the Best Damn Poker Show.  And to me, the Best Damn Poker Show is the best there is on TV.

I just think that it’s cool how the contestants and viewing audience are both being taught poker by two of the better pros in today’s game and the entertainment value is also there with people getting kicked off of the show.  Not only is it cool to try and pick up some extra knowledge on poker, but you also become interested in each of the contestants on the show and begin to pull for certain ones while rooting against others.

Now some people might think that the reality show aspect of the Best Damn Poker Show is a little corny and played out, but I really think it adds a lot to the program.  I’m not one for watching shows like The Bachelor, The Ultimate Fighter, Big Brother, The Pick-up Artist etc., however, seeing poker in a reality show format is something that does peak my interest.  Hopefully, the second season of the Best Damn Poker Show is even better than the first!