If you watch a lot of major poker tournaments, or you find yourself reading up on the history of the game, it’s likely you’ll come across quite a lot of names more than once. These players have, in their own way, completely redefined what it is to be a professional poker player, and their unique approaches at the table are what differentiate them from those who just can’t steamroll tournaments in the way these players do. Without further ado, here’s our Poker A-Team.
The Radical – Doyle Brunson
If you’ve ever gone up against a monster who just never stops betting aggressively, taunts other players and seems far too confident considering the odds of having that many good hands in a row, every single night, then you’re lucky, as you’ve not experienced Doyle Brunson, the player who makes monsters look like timid children. A poker legend, Brunson’s expertise at predicting the moves of his opponents through playing entire sessions of poker against himself, combined with his hardcore trash-talking and brash attitude tended to terrify, allowing him to dominate the tables unlucky enough to have him sitting with them.
The Ever-Enduring – Johnny Moss
Now, back when we didn’t have online poker, there wasn’t the option of lying down on a couch or under a duvet in bed when throwing down cards and chips every evening. People played in person, and Johnny Moss was someone who made ten-hour tournaments look like a brief wait at a red light. He played a game against iconic poker star Nick “The Greek” Dandolos that lasted an astonishing five months. Not only that, but at the end of it he walked away the winner. We don’t know about you, but after the sun starts making an appearance that’s generally as far as we can go. His endurance proved to be his winning tactic, as Dandolos just couldn’t keep up with the Moss Machine.
The Brains – Erik Seidel
For every team of stars, there’s someone with a serious amount of brains and a mind for money – meet Erik Seidel, former stockbroker who took his poker career full-time when the American stock market crashed in 1987. Evidently, his way with numbers meant that he hammered tournaments across the country, and his jackpot total hit the seven-figure mark extremely rapidly. He now stands at over $10 million in total winnings, and anyone who still managed to pull in that amount of cash after leaving Wall Street is someone to be reckoned with.
The Young Blood – Nicolas Chouity
Most poker legends start making their names close to or during middle-age, when they’ve got a good decade or more of high-stakes experience under their belts. Not Chouity, who was walking away with mind-numbing sums during his energetic twenties. Having already made a name for himself as an up-and-comer, he’s already raked in over $2 million in winnings, and doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of stopping. To be the last player standing in Monte Carlo at his age is a feat that demands respect, and he continues to earn it in spades.
These four are just a few, but if they ever formed a team, not a single four-person poker unit would touch them. Poker’s a solitary sport, and that’s the way it should be, but if there ever was a reason to call on the best of the best to save the world, these four are likely to find their phones ringing off the hook.