In the world of poker there are a lot of personalities, play styles and characters that we always find attractive for one reason or the other; maybe because they represent what in the deep of our hearts we want to be or maybe they are just so wonderful at the tables that we can avoid getting captivated by their talent; in other cases the poker player we admire has been through so much efforts to be where he is that we identify ourselves with our own wars, struggling till we reach the top and making incredible comebacks from a few chips to the first place of a tourney which make us feel like we are following his successful steps.
A poker pro love/hate survey has been launched at the Facebook fanpage of the Online Poker World Championship and the all the fans have been able to express their feelings towards some of the most visible poker warlords nowadays. Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, and Phil Ivey also known as the Tiger Woods of poker have gone through the critic eyes of the game enthusiasts and the results have been surprising.
On the first place of the poker fan ranking we find the living legend Doyle Brunson who received over one hundred votes and all of them were on the love side. Texas Dolly is the most recognized living player at the moment and even though some people have dared to declare he was close to pass away (Mack Rowden on “100 most likely people to die in 2009” arguing Brunson could die because of his obesity) the Godfather is still leading the game in 2025 and he participated at the NBC National Heads-Up Championship that took place just a week ago. The rumors about his death were taken with humor by the poker master who simply answered he was going to survive and any detractor only had one chance in ten to be right about his fate. For the sake of the game and all the fans around the planet “Texas Dolly” is still around and healthy.
In second place the OPWC followers decided to place Gus "The Great Dane" Hansen who got a 98.5% of love. 3 WPT titles and the crown at the Aussie Millions main event in its 2007 version grace the Danish professional gambler achievements display. Hansen was also recognized for his skills at Backgammon and he was a remarkable tennis player during his youth. The People Magazine mentioned him as one of the 50 sexiest men of 2004, so this guy is used to heat of popularity not only inside the poker arena.
On the third place with 97.9%, we have Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. A.K.A “Phil Ivey” the North American poker superstar whose birthday was yesterday Feb 1st, climbed to the third place of the loved ones at the Online Poker World Championship with almost 100 votes on the love side. The Tiger Woods of poker owns 8 bracelets of the WSOP and was the first who faced the feared Amarillo Slim (legendary player who widely ruled the game in company of Brunson) heads-up and survived to become the winner at a final table of the World Series of Poker.
On the 4th place is Daniel Negreanu with a huge load of votes that almost reached the 450. “Kid Poker” famous for his sick readings during the tournaments is definitely the most popular at our Fanpage. The Romanian-Canadian poker pro has been in trouble a couple of times for what he calls: “speaking his mind” specially against one of his long-lasting rivals at the poker tables Annie Duke, and despite the conflict has faded through the years, given it started in early 90s, these two celebrities are not even close to have a drink out of the casinos. “Kid Poker” holds 4 bracelets of the WSOP and 2 championships at the WPT.
The Old School wins again as it happened in the National Heads-Up Championship a few days ago, players like Hellmuth and Hansen stand close, but not enough, to the current leaders and despite the Brunson record could not be broken there are more poker pros joining the poker fan ranking.
