Game Changers: Players Who Turned Poker Play Upside Down
March 12, 2010
Yesterday I wrote about a select few poker players that brought mainstream exposure of poker, especially to online amateurs looking to make a name for themselves. Today, I want to look at a select few poker players who were true game changers; their play turned heads and changed the status quo.
It is hard to talk about poker without mentioning Doyle Brunson. Yes, he has perhaps lost steam over recent years, and Moses was in his graduating class, but “Texas Dolly” revolutionized poker play by not only forming an extensive system of play, but by sharing it with the world. Brunson’s Super System revolutionized poker by giving pros and amateurs a wealth of insight and advice. It shared strategy that would form the basis for players for decades to come. Hundreds of poker books would flood the market after Super System, but Doyle’s was the original, and it laid the groundwork for how poker players would play the game – until Gus Hansen threw all the books away.
Before Gus Hansen, poker was quite literally by-the-book. A former backgammon champion, Hansen ignored the books and played his own game. Hansen is known for two things: having an abnormally oblong head, and being agent of chaos in poker. He seemingly plays any hand and mixes deft strategy with wild abandon. He is unpredictable, frustrating, erratic and very, very successful. The by-the-book poker players had a hard time getting a read on Hansen, and he has become a feared opponent on the felt. Hansen championed a movement for players to stop playing by strategy they read and exploit those who rigidly stuck with that strategy. Hansen’s schizophrenic play has brought excitement and unpredictability to the game.
Tom Dwan can be added to this list. While his long term impact on poker remains to be seen, his short term impact has been revolutionary. Yes, there were success stories of online players taking to live events, but Dwan blew then all out of the water. Dwan is one of the most prolific and successful online players, but he has swathed a path for himself in live poker as well. He has slain poker legends left and right and lined his pockets with their money. Dwan gives Hellmuth fits, because he can beat him, but also because he goes against what Hellmuth vehemently believes about online players: they are just fodder for the “real” players such as himself. Dwan has proven himself as more than a “real” player, and the recent increasing emergence of online players to live poker is no coincidence. Also, my fiance pointed out that he would make a “great drag queen” because of his “feminine eyebrows and lips.” So he’s got that going for him as well.
These names are of course arguable. Do you have better names? Do you agree or disagree? Sound off in the comments!
Ryan Smith is a contributing blog writer for GR88.com
Where the heck is Phil Ivey?