Fame before game

''The Magician'', "The Mouth'',  "Kid Poker'', ''The Professor"  and even "Jesus"  are all famous nicknames in poker.  Although the players they belong to all have achievements on the table they are best known for their strong personalities. They have their own catch phrases, multiple nicknames, books, merchandise,  TV shows and they even reached a strong and long lasting (b or c) celebrity status. Which means they usually make most of their income from activities outside playing poker. The persona's they embody are all one-dimensional characters similar to what you would find in action movies. You can put them in categories,  time for some pictures! :)

The bad boy                                                                            The old time legend

Phil Helmuth
"The Poker Brat"

Doyle Brunson
''Texas Dolly"
"Big Papa"
"The Godfather"

                   

The math guy                                                                        The average Joe

Darvin Moon
"Darvin Gump"
"The Luddite Logger"
"The Moonman"

Howard Lederer
"The Professor"

Something to note is that they stay in character when they are not playing during interviews and television shows. It's always interesting to wonder if they act the same off camera, I guess some will but for others it will be nothing more than an act. 

Their talent and knowledge of the game is often debatable and by the online generation they are all considered pretty bad to absolutely awful. Some of them haven't performed and are losing players for years now, but they still have a big fan-base. The biggest reason for their popularity is that 99% of the people who watch poker on television have no idea what is going on. They might know the rules of the game but to identify the best player it takes a lot of poker knowledge and talent. The average viewer will support the player with the persona they identify the most with or the guy with the most entertainment or shock value. Another reason that talent is not easily recognized is that the monitoring of results in poker especially live is hard and results are influenced by luck (no it's not gambling!). This means you cant recognize the best player in the world like you can say Usain Bolt is the best sprinter in the world. 

The small percentage that does understand the game is frustrated by this lack of recognition for talent, for me this is an extremely short sighted and naive opinion for multiple reasons. If you are a player that  wants to earn money you must embrace these poker personalities because they are extremely good for the game. First of all they are known for donating large amounts of money at the online tables. They also attract new players that are inspired by these colorful characters, and new players will always be losing players. Finally they are usually teaching the wrong stuff in their books, articles and videos making their fans terrible players.  

Outside poker there are also many areas where personality often outweighs talent, two areas that come to mind are music and politics. No music critic will say that Britney Spears is even close to the most talented singer of the last decade but she did get people to buy an insane amount of her records. Furthermore most political analysts wouldn't argue that George W Bush was the most talented politician in the US but he got voted president twice supported by more than half of the American population. Poker personalities are fascinating, amusing and extremely good for the game. Although not from poker winnings we can't deny they are probably among the top earners in poker. They might oversell their talents, which can  be annoying but at the same time completely harmless! I wish i could say the same thing about politicians......

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9GH-yvPHSY

ps.... almost forgot to post pictures of some Dutch poker personalities, you can actually run into them on the streets or during a tournament near your home!!!!!!

Rolf Slotboom
"Ace"
"Rofl Slotboom"

Nicky Roeg
"The Freeroll King"