[barryg1]

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Barry, I'm curious: how well do you keep up with Who's Who in online poker? As in, how familiar are you with the games of some of online's "elite"? Are there any specific players who particularly impress you? I'm particularly thinking of tournaments, but if you want to remark on cash games too that'd be welcomed.

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I don't keep up and I rarely watch poker on TV. When I'm at a table of young players, I often ask my son if he knows any of them. I have seen several play well on that day we were together, but it's hard to know how well they would have done facing other problems at the table.


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I agree with all this and still think your side of the bet is marginal at best.

You argue that the primary reason for the online players' dominance is that that they can get away with murder in the short-term, and then you let Brian pick two extremely promising internet players who are actively capitalizing on the short-term (and who can probably adjust like good players do, anyway).

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There are obviously a lot of good young players. Poker is popular today. Some of them will stand the test of time and some of them will go by the wayside, and we will realize they had a good year or two out of variance. I have seen a lot of weak play out of some supposed stars. Originally, Brian was planning on choosing about ten players. In that group, I'm sure a couple of them would have turned out to be long term duds. I think I’ve shown that I’m OK in the long run.

No one is going to have a huge edge over me in tournaments. But more importantly, how will some of the young players fare when they are not playing their A games? How will they play when they are depressed because their girlfriends broke up with them? Will they get caught up in the fast lane in Vegas? I would think that my D game is better than any of the young guns, because of my maturity and experience. Many people on the forums rate Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius ahead of me. However, both of them are young and capable of playing very badly when they aren’t focused. Neither of them would tell you their D games match up with mine.

Most likely, there is no big edge here. I don’t think I’ve played with Sorel in a tournament yet, but I’ve played with Justin and I don’t think he’d tell you he’s a favorite over me. (Actually, Justin seems to be a good kid and humble, despite all the bashing he gets here for multiple entries in tournaments. I asked him if he ever played at the same table as himself, and he said no. I agree it’s wrong, but I often hear of people having multiple entries in tournaments. One guy even bragged he split one with himself.)

Barry