There’s a certain set of people who’ve been able to take advantage of the good ol’ days of poker when the game wasn’t nearly so tough. Sure there have always been great poker players, but the 90’s and early 2000’s saw a number of people gain fame within poker that still carries over today. Along with that fame, they were also able to build some huge bankrolls due to the fact that anybody with even a hint of poker strategy knowledge could steamroll their competition.
Of course today’s game is much different since there are literally millions more players in poker now. The game is so much more popular because of the fact that anyone can pull up a cyber chair or research the best way to play AK in seconds through the Internet. Seeing as how this is the case, the players in both live and online play are so much better today as well.
And this makes me wonder just how many of the famous players today are actually deserving of all the hype. I surely respect all of the online players who’ve slowly built their bankroll and have become good live players in the process so I’m not talking about them. However, there are quite a few people in the live circuit today who make me question if they aren’t still just living off of the fame and sponsorship deals they gained years ago.
I don’t want to go off naming names of everyone who I think actually sucks and just got in poker at the right time, but there are no doubt some people out there who are in this boat. All I can say is at least players from the new generation won’t be able to squeeze by on name recognition alone; they’ll have to earn theirs.