Flavor of the Month - Becoming a 'name' in the poker world is different nowadays

A few years ago, in order to become a "name" player, you had to win at least a few tournaments and exhibit some consistency with final-table appearances and in-the-money finishes.


In today's poker world, that's not necessarily the case. Obviously, if you win a few tournaments or maybe even just one of the "big" tournaments, you instantly may become a name player. On the other hand, winning and showing consistency in several middle- of-the-road tournaments may provide you quite a bit of money, but little or no attention as far as name recognition goes.


This thought came to my mind as the Wildhorse Resort and Casino's Spring Roundup concluded. One of the players, a dealer by the name of Tam Nguyen from Salem, Oregon, who deals across the state at Spirit Mountain Casino, pretty much made a joke of the tournament. He had two wins and a sixth-place finish in the 11 events. When the smoke cleared, he had run away with the best all-around player award. Winning the all-around award earned him a free buy-in to the $2,500 supersatellite for the $25,000 WPT Championship tournament. In the supersatellite, he won a seat in the big one, and then went on to cash in for $30,000 for his 54th-place finish. To say that Tam can play poker is an understatement.



As I stated before, in the poker world of a few years ago, his name would begin to be mentioned as a rising star. Unfortunately, with all of the big buy-in tournaments, the most likely scenario is that the few players who win those big tournaments will make names for themselves. The many very good, talented players with more consistent results in tournaments with buy-ins less than $5,000 and $10,000 will remain virtual unknowns.


Of course, nowhere is it said that those who do well in the $300, $500, and $1,000 tournaments can step up and win the $10,000 tournaments. In truth, they had better be willing to invest quite a bit of money and time in flying from coast to coast and paying the hotel and travel costs. Also, they should have no one telling them they are not being a responsible husband or father. Then, if all those pieces fall into place, all they have to do is beat several hundred people.


The point is, it is so much more difficult these days than it was a few years ago, when most of the tournaments were in Las Vegas or Los Angeles, and they were spaced far enough apart that there were many breaks during the year. The buy-ins were generally lower with the exception of the World Series of Poker. But many of the middle-of-the-road pros were willing to bite the bullet and unbuckle their money belts for this once-a-year event.


A few weeks after the Wildhorse concluded, I found myself at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where I once again took notice of a few younger players who I could see had some poker talent. There was an East Coast player, Larry (Zekeness) Lawson, and a few other young players, including Brian Wilson, Jeff Rine, and Randy Hughes. I thought they all showed, at least to me, that they have quite a bit of poker-playing talent.


But they, like Tam from Spirit Mountain, may never be name players. And it is not necessarily because they do not play as well or are less talented than the name players. It is more a function of the high money output and lengthy periods of time required to put themselves in the position of having to win or place very high in one of those million-dollar tournaments.


If you look back in time, when there were very few really big tournaments, the "flash in the pan" players who may have won or finished very high in the WSOP main event were generally tolerated as guys who just got lucky in one or two spots. They were much easier to overlook because there was no "instant fame." In fact, outside of the poker world, there was almost no fame. The majority of the name players were consistent performers who had proven themselves over a period of time. Most had never even made the final table of the WSOP main event.


This brings me back to my point, which is that nowadays, it just isn't going to be that easy to make a name in poker without winning one of the "mega" tournaments.


I have played with some of the kids who have become names in the last couple of years, such as Erick Lindgren, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Mizrachi, Scott Fischman, John Phan, and J.C. Tran. It appears to me that these are some of the players who won a big tournament and then were able to back it up by proving that they belong by continuing their successes. Of course, without knowing each of their individual situations, it surely must have helped to have won large sums of money to continue playing in the bigger tournaments.


I think much of my sadness over the situation is that the old notion that someone is a great poker player is one that is almost unattainable by talented new players, such as those whom I mentioned at the beginning of this column. Simply put, they just aren't going to become name or known players by winning or having good consistent results in $300, $500, $1,000, or $1,500 tournaments. Many players with much less talent or poker ability can win a buy-in to a big tournament on the Internet for next to nothing. They then can catch lightning in a bottle, win a life-changing amount of money, become well-known with television exposure, and maybe even appear on the cover of Card Player.



Finally, and with all due respect to my employer, I think this is even reflected in the Card Player Player of the Year award. As years have gone by, it has become increasingly more difficult (if not impossible) for a middle-of-the-road player to be competitive in that race. A player has to win many more of the medium-sized tournaments to equal one of the bigger mega tournaments.


I guess what it all boils down to is that with the ever-growing poker world, many very good tournament poker players will have to settle for being on the "a" list, and let the supernovas of the poker world have the "A" list.


For what it's worth …