Originally Posted by
wantitall4moi
Meh, all these guys are degenerates. I have played with all of them at one time or another either in L.A. or in Vegas. And trust me, dont believe the hype about any of them.
I remember Negraneau back when the Plaza first had its poker room when he was really young and he couldnt stack a hundred bux worth of chips. he was drunk all the time and basically a dick head to anyone and everyone. Then he got some connections somehow and steve wynn started bankrolling him, and that just made him a bigger ashole. Then poker stared to take off, and all the marketing geniuses reinvented all these guys. Irony is Phil helmuth used to be one of the nicer guys, but his image consultant or whatever told him the thing was poker needed a bad boy, and that is what you see now a days. So these guys are basically bad actors.
But honestly back before poker took off most of these guys were playing with 10-20K max in front of them. None of this made for TV bullshit where they are supposedly playing with 500K to 1 mil. The guys who sat down with that kind of cash before the poker boom were the legitimate rich guys that all these losers used to soak to try and make a living gambling.
Pretty amazing how poker players became almost over night icons when they used to be seen for exactly what they were, total lazy degenerates that couldnt hold a real job because they were either drug addicts, felons, or couldnt stay sober enough to put in a 5 day work week. Now they have book deals, TV spots, internet sites, sponsorships by some legitimate companies, and plastered all over TV on a half dozen channels.
In truth a vast majority of their income comes from sponsors and people paying them to do whatever sell out thing they want them to do. The money actually won playing poker, especially in live events is still next to nothing for most of these guys, and even the tourney innings, what little bit they actually get to keep after they pay their sponsors and fees and traveling expenses goes up in smoke pretty fast.
But as with everything else, if it is called 'reality' or deemed reality and its on TV is has to be exactly like it is on TV.
But all you need to know about these guys 'wealth' and ability' can easilly be put to the test when you sit down at a 3/5 no limit game in LA and you see half a dozen of these guys sitting around with some of the smallest stacks on the table taking shots at the rich guys, just like they always did. The lose their initial buy in and they jut leave. Seen that for the past 8-10 years out here and other than a little bit in 05 and 06 it never changed.