Last week, Poker.org tweeted a short bio of Chip Reese , opening with a pompous introduction:
— You've heard the name before... Doyle Brunson said he was without a doubt the best poker player that ever lived and he’s the youngest person ever inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame… but do you know his story?
This is how Chip Reese became the best that ever lived
This post made Daniel Negreanu wonder if it is even possible to determine the strongest player in poker:
— When Michael Jordan is asked who the GOAT NBA player is, he answers by saying it’s unfair to compare eras.
Bobby Fischer said the same when comparing chess players of today, with the tools at their disposal, to the greats of the early 1900’s.
Chip Reese was unanimously regarded as the GOAT of his era and if you factor in the lack of tools available to him that are available today, arguably the greatest poker mind to have ever lived.
When Chip Reese passed, that distinction of GOAT was passed down to Phil Ivey.
Dominated online, tournaments, cash games, mixed games- all of it.
Who is the GOAT of this era and how do they stack up against those that came before them?
Interesting question- not such an easy answer as it isn’t quite unanimous as it had been in previous decades.
A GOAT has to be able to compete at a high level at all the games IMO.
A specialist can be the GOAT at a particular game, but if they don’t play all the games at a high level they can’t be part of the discussion as the GOAT poker player.
Who do you think the GOAT of this era is? Share thoughts, I’m curious to see who you come up with.
CoinPoker Ambassador Ryan Depaulo continued with his jokes, putting Ali Imsirovic into the mix:
Stu Ungars name is still thrown around:
And even Martin Kabrhel got a mention:
Twitter users love these types of polls, and the post has collected almost 300 comments and over 360k views.
Jesse Lonis answered the question in a way that onlookers probably didn't expect.
— The best player of this era is ranked #1 in the world right now and has been for the majority of the last 2 years. I’ve dominated every size buyin level and all field sizes. The only reason I don’t play most big cash games is because it’s all private now and I’m not gonna suck off some game runner to get in. Been training playing $300-$600 mix at resorts world plan on dominating that scene in the near future also. I appreciate you giving me the extra confidence early on and always believing in my skill from the beginning!
“If you don’t believe you’re the best then you will never achieve all that you are capable of.” -Cristiano Ronaldo
“But Ronaldo is not the best lol,” one of the commentators responded.
Patrick Leonard firmly gave an two names to the poll.
— Jason Koon & Ben Tollerene and I don’t think it’s close. Crushed online MTTs, online cash, live cash, live tournaments, PLO, Short Deck came along? Goat too.
Won more money than anybody else, won more titles than basically everybody played theoretically better than everybody.
They’re unrivalled imo, would put Jason ahead, but Bens PLO & HU prowess makes them super close, and unsurprisingly they’re BFFs.
Journalists analyzed the comments and found that Phil Ivey was mentioned most often (23 times at the time), followed by Michael Mizrachi (12 times), Daniel Negreanu (7), Phil Hellmuth (5) and Nick Schulman (4).
Even after such blatant self-campaigning, Jesse Lonis received only one additional vote.
The selection of the strongest player in history is a regular occurrence on poker social networks.
In 2022, Doug Polk decided to add some objectivity and organized a large-scale vote on the Upswingpoker website. He recorded a series of podcasts in which, with the help of viewers and invited experts, he first formed a list of 100 names, from which the best were then chosen. However, in the end, 101 players were on the list, with Dan Bilzerian taking the honorable 101st place .
Phil Ivey also won that vote confidently.
In the top 10, the votes were distributed as follows:
- Phil Ivey – 4,691 votes
- Doyle Brunson – 4,178
- Daniel Negreanu – 4,112
- Phil Hellmuth – 4,015
- Erik Seidel – 3,822
- Stu Ungar – 3,781
- Phil Galfond – 3,696
- Tom Dwan – 3,670
- Dan Cates – 3,629
- Patrik Antonius – 3,579
First, UpswingPoker users determined the top 20, and then chose the strongest among them. Timofey Kuznetsov took 21st place (3,009 votes). This injustice was highlighted separately in Doug's podcast.
Doug Polk: I'm a little biased because we are players of the same generation and rose in tandem. This guy is a real genius, he won in all varieties of poker. Timofey is equally strong in both short and deep stacks. No one can compare to him in this either, usually players develop in one thing. He hardly played tournaments, but even in them, over a short distance, he showed excellent results. I can't imagine how Trueteller could not be included in the top 20.
Kane Kalas: I think Trueteller probably deserves the top spot rather than a spot outside the top 20. When it comes to picking the best poker player, they often talk about versatility, and he has no equal. In my opinion, he has the best poker mind. If there was a new poker format, who would you least want to be at the table with? For me, it would definitely be Trueteller.
Doug Polk: I agree, he learns new games incredibly quickly and understands the important points instantly. He is often described as a big bet specialist, but he is also one of the strongest in mixed games. Remember his famous match against Ivey? They played a very long heads-up 8 game $400/$800 on PokerStars with a crossbook. How much experience did Trueteller have before that match? I would guess not much. He was learning on the fly.
In the final podcast about the vote, several well-known players shared their top 5, and Polk commented on them.
Polk's comment:
– I really like this list. Especially the fact that he put himself first and added “obv”. I also like that he added Ashton. He didn’t make it into my top 5, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about his game. He’s almost unknown in the community, but all the people who have played with him a lot rate him very highly. This is a hallmark of players who are known only to a small circle.
Jungle in first place also looks normal. He plays poker almost more than anyone else. It is unlikely that there will be many people at high stakes who can compare with him in terms of the distance played. He also mastered all the games, did not become the best in all, but reached a very high level in all. He also has incredible poker instinct. In my opinion, he has no equal in this.
Daniel Negreanu:
Polk's comment:
– Daniel is clearly biased and shows more sympathy for players of his generation or slightly older. But this is typical for everyone, including me. Daniel has a fairly standard list without any particular madness, except perhaps Oppenheim. I would like to dwell separately on Ivey. It is clear that now he is not even close to being in the top 10, as he has not been for the last five years. But if you take his career as a whole, he is quite worthy of being on the first line. He has been playing for a very long time and has always been in the elite.
Chris Hook:
Polk's comment:
– I like this list too. However, I wouldn’t include Ike in my listing for such a moustache. Thuritz is another worthy candidate for any top-5. He plays at the highest level in any games, for many years. He tore it up online, then moved to Macau and won huge money. He is equally good at mixed games and PLO. Some may consider the fact that he has never played tournaments a disadvantage, but for others it is, on the contrary, a plus. It is often said that select is not his strongest side. Online, he used to be ready to play anything and often fought with narrow specialists in their strongest games. As far as I know, he did this to stay in shape before the expensive game in Macau.
Jonas Mols is Otb_RedBaron . I have mixed feelings about him. On the one hand, he is certainly better than all these Doyles, Chips and Iveys. They are not even close in terms of their level of play in NLHE. He played in the toughest lineups and was definitely the strongest there. Many players on this list would not even beat $1/$2 online. How can they be compared? But then I remember that he has never played offline, does not know how to play any other format, and has never even been considered the best in heads-up NLHE. He is the strongest player in only one thing – 6-max hold'em online. He has no equal in this, perhaps, in the entire history of poker. Can we include him in the top 5 best players in history for this? Probably not, although deep down I think he deserves it. After all, hold'em is the "Cadillac of poker".
Much of what was said about Baron applies to Linus as well. In No-Limit Hold'em, these two are simply head and shoulders above everyone else on this list.
Doug Polk:
– I thought about the first line for a long time. I wanted to show off somehow, but I still put Ivey. I repeat, now he is neither in the top 5 nor in the top 10. But throughout his career, he has been distinguished by stability and the ability to play all types of poker.
I have already spoken about Cates – he has no equal in his ability to read the hands of his opponents and there is no one more terrible than him at short tables.
Truteller is similar to Jungle in many ways. I even thought about which of them to put in second place. Both have been tearing up any format for many years.
I respect Aika a lot for his achievements online. We often crossed paths, he never avoided the most difficult teams and achieved great success. Then he switched to other formats and continued to win there too.
I just noticed that all of the players on my list not only play all forms of poker, but were also competitive heads-up at some point in their careers.
Antonius is similar to Ivey in many ways, but it was as if he was always one step behind. Now he is also far from the strongest players, but his career has earned him a place at the top.
Thuritz is one of the most underrated players in history, I've already talked about him.
Negreanu is a special player. After his heads-up with me, he started working hard on his game. If he doesn't stop, I imagine that in 10 years he will be called the strongest player in history. Ivey will most likely continue to decline, and Negreanu has always had a thirst for learning. It is not a fact that he will ever surpass Trueteller and Cates, but I would not be surprised if, over time, even elite players will start to name Negreanu among the strongest.
