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POCKET ACES

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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

July 24, 2004

The Jury Is In

Only the mediocre are always at their best.
-- Jean Giraudoux

Today's passion for sound bites has become so popular that 100 Best specials for just about everything seem to be materializing on every URL and TV cable channel within reach of a keyboard or remote control.

Fortune 500 has the top 100 companies to work for. Random House lists its 100 best nonfiction books. National Public Radio plays its 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. VH1 broadcasts their 100 most metal moments (as in head-banging heavy metal music). The Sporting News prints its 100 most powerful people in sports. And we have the top 100 newspapers, top 100 defense contractors, top 100 travel sites, top 100 American speeches. You get the picture?

The proliferation of Top 100s naturally leads to the question and (often heated) debate about who the top poker players are.

This year, devotees of the game would probably agree that Greg Raymer has to be near the top of the best-poker-player list, very close to Chris Moneymaker and Robert Varkonyi, the last three winners of the World Series of Poker. Long-time players and fans would probably disagree. This trio managed to sustain a lengthy battle of wits against hundreds of contenders (many of whom were tops in their field), emerge at the head of the pack and win the most prestigious poker title in the world. The argument comes from those who believe these wins were nothing more than a flash of lightning caught in a bottle by players haven't really paid their dues.

How can they be in any top 100? Hmmm. If you're compiling your list based on total money won, then these names belong somewhere at the apogee of the heap, along with Antonio Esfandiar, Paul Phillips, Erick Lindgren and others who have responded successfully to the call of today's poker game.

Card Player magazine ranks poker players by money earned, considering, of course, tournament money as there's no way to accurately assess a journeyman's bottom line. So far this year, the best player in the world, according to the magazine, is Daniel Negreanu, whose skills have brought him to eight final tables (major tournaments) and earned him $1,519,288. A few other players have earned more tournament money but this ranking takes those final-table appearances into consideration, thus a major win such as the World Series of Poker championship, doesn't mess up the soup.

But where does that leave the players who kept poker alive before it became a reality show -- the ones who had to make deals for the prize money? (Yes, some of them did this.)

Not to worry. In short order the living legends will be immortalized in print in one place in a book by Ron Rose titled "Poker Aces: The Stars of Tournament Poker." Rose, a competitor himself, profiles a shade more than 100 (117 to be precise) players in his book, which should be available by the first of August. It looks like an interesting read in that it not only covers some of the more notable names but also feature some lesser-known entities that might one day be list toppers.

Personally, I'd like to introduce the real No. 1 poker player to those who haven't discovered him. Actually I don't know who he is. He goes by the name of Dark and his total chip count as of today is 1,021,666,000. Seriously! And that's chips earned in about one year! It doesn't matter if those chips are worth $1 each or $100 each. That's a huge number that probably won't ever be equaled in real life.

Dark is one of a number of players who visit the Web site www.digitalconsciousness.net/cardroom/ to pit their skills against Jarrod the Poker Robot who came into public being in April 2003.

Now, maybe Jarrod isn't such a hot player or maybe Dark is just another robot (in disguise) who has his opponent's number. If he isn't, then Dark has to be No. 1 in the Top 100 poker player list.