Blog - Bluff Magazine’s Power 20 – a discussion

Blog - Bluff Magazine’s Power 20 – a discussion

Friday, 5 February 2010

Before I get into this blog, I’d like to talk briefly about the pot awarded to the losing hand at Cake Poker. In a post-Russ Hamilton/UltimateBet world, this sort of thing is naturally going to set alarm bells ringing all over the online poker community.

However, I believe there’s no reason you shouldn’t play on Cake Poker because of this. It’s a software glitch, nothing more. Computers don’t work one hundred per cent of the time. Also, Lee Jones and the Cake Poker team fixed the problem swiftly, publically and without fuss. If anything, that’s further reason to put your bankroll there. In fact, tell me that it was a conspiracy to make Cake Poker look better afterwards and I might just start listening…


What I’d really like to talk about today is the Bluff Power 20, because I’m an opinionated git and this gives me a chance to disagree with some things. Click here to see who Bluff picked for the privileged list.
Now, I have no problems with the top two places. Online poker is the most influential media on the industry, far more so than any individual. These two companies are the top dogs in the online poker world by quite some margin.


By that same token, Howard Lederer (Full Tilt Poker head honcho) and Mitch Garber (Harrah’s boss) are worthy of top five spots. But move Ty Stewart (Harrah’s bloke) and put Barney Frank, who did more than anyone else to undo the UIGEA, in his place.


Also, as much as it pains me to say this – Phil Hellmuth needs a spot. A good one. He might be an insufferable oik, but he is the most famous poker player in the world. There’s no arguing with that. He is the most successful No-Limit Hold ‘em (and let’s face it, NLHE is poker as far as the world is concerned) tournament player of all time (and let’s face it, televised tournaments are poker as far as the world is concerned).


I think Matt Savage also deserves more props, though I think 2010 will be a year in which he will climb the ranks. I have a feeling, based on the re-emerging WPT as well as PokerStars’ myriad of live tournament tours, that live poker will rise from the dead this year.


Mike Sexton is definitely a man who needs a place in the rankings, and Daniel Negreanu is a solid choice too – he’s always been very media-savvy and not afraid to state his opinion or influence the industry.


Phil Ivey? Well, he’s Phil f***ing Ivey!


You might totally disagree with me here – as I said, I am an opinionated tit. If so, sock it to me on the forums.



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