Have there been any new TV "household name" poker celebrities since 2008 era?
Helmuth, Brunson, Dwan, Negreanu, Ivey, TonyG, Matusow, Antonius, Ferguson, etc.
These are the names I know. And still see on YouTube.
These were legit personalities and a whole cast of characters. Serious personalities for box office draw.
But, this is pushing 20 years ago. They are probably all retired now.
Are there new names today?
Am I out of the loop, or has poker become stuck in time?
Are there new Poker TV shows like Poker After Dark 2008-2011 peak?
Not anyone I can think of.
My brother is only casually interested in poker and he only ever mentions those names + viktor blom.
Closest thing would probably be Fedor. But even he seemed like he got big for a short time as he burst onto the scene and then hasn't had as much attention on him.
There have been some other relatively big names like Alex Foxxen, Ali, Ike Hanson (more infamous than famous maybe), some of the streamers, etc. Some of these have been around for a while and I'm not sure if you would qualify them as "post-boom," but they've gotten semi-famous relatively recently.
But yeah it's just not the same as when big names were all over mainstream TV.
Dwan, Ivey, Hellmuth, Negreanu have all been on stream playing at least more than once in the last year alone. The problem is that there’s so many new players so the old ones don’t stick out as much.
A quick look at the Hendon Mob's most popular all-time players reveals few "new" names in the top 25:
https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/ranking...
Keep in mind, this leaderboard is based on all-time clicks, so it extends back to the 00s and favors the older names.
All the same, these results indicate that the next gen has yet to match the popularity of their predecessors. I think that's because media is much more fragmented than in the 00s, when you had major poker TV shows on cable and sponsored pros being put in the shop window by the major poker operators (Stars, Tilt).
If we break it down by year, 2024 shows some fresher names in the top 5:
https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/ranking...
This suggests that Mateos, Yokosawa, and Kenney are some of the biggest poker celebrities of this era. I think regional popularity probably plays a role here, as Mateos is widely known in the European scene while Yokosawa has a big social media following in Asia for his streams and social media content.
We also see why Daniel Negreanu continues to be a great investment for his sponsors. He is far and away the biggest poker-specific celebrity.
There aren't new TV household name poker players because poker isn't on TV in households anymore. There is a big difference between millions watching TV final tables on cable TV compared to maybe a few thousand watching on YouTube/Twitch/Pokergo.
Poker on TV has gone the way of extreme sports from the late 90s/early 2000s. There will never be a skateboarder, snowboarder, BMXer, or freestyle motocross rider able to surpass the fame of Tony Hawk, Shaun White, Dave Mira, or Travis Pastrana or their contemporaries they competed against during the peak popularity of their given sport. The big names of poker from the poker boom will forever be set in stone to the general public.
A quick look at the Hendon Mob's most popular all-time players reveals few "new" names in the top 25:
https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/ranking...
Keep in mind, this leaderboard is based on all-time clicks, so it extends back to the 00s and favors the older names.
All the same, these results indicate that the next gen has yet to match the popularity of their predecessors. I think that's because media is much more fragmented than in the 00s, when you had major poker TV shows on cable and sponsored p
But that's poker nerds searching Hendon. Random people don't know who those players are like they did with Ivey Helmuth etc.
But that's poker nerds searching Hendon. Random people don't know who those players are like they did with Ivey Helmuth etc.
Some of Yokosawa's YouTube videos have upwards of 3-5M hits:
I don't claim to be plugged into Japanese pop culture, but it's fair to say his audience stretches far outside "poker nerds".
I agree in general though that poker fame is a lot narrower in 2025 than 2005.
Hopefully GG will market the WSOP better than CET/PokerGO/CBS have done. I think they left a lot of meat on the bone.
Brad Owen, Neeme, etc
Garret was on the way I suspect until the blowup with HCL
There aren't new TV household name poker players because poker isn't on TV in households anymore. There is a big difference between millions watching TV final tables on cable TV compared to maybe a few thousand watching on YouTube/Twitch/Pokergo.
Pretty much this. The OP describes a time when poker got as close to mainstream popularity as it ever did – even more than an era when Amarillo Slim was a recurring guest on The Tonight Show.
On the flipside, there is a new wave of poker players that I didn't know about and often saw referenced on forums just like these. ("Who the hell is Rampage and what did he do with an Instagram scammer??")
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there are poker fans who absolutely know who, say, Andrew Neeme and Matt Berkey are, but have little to no familiarity of the likes of Barry Greenstein and Freddy Deeb. And there are people who still think Johnny Chan is the GOAT of poker simply because Norman Chad said so more than two decades ago.
Some of Yokosawa's YouTube videos have upwards of 3-5M hits:
I don't claim to be plugged into Japanese pop culture, but it's fair to say his audience stretches far outside "poker nerds".
I agree in general though that poker fame is a lot narrower in 2025 than 2005.
Hopefully GG will market the WSOP better than CET/PokerGO/CBS have done. I think they left a lot of meat on the bone.
Ok fair enough I shouldn't speak to anyone's mainstream popularity in other countries.
People naming Neeme/Owen/Garrett have zero idea just how popular Negreanu/Ivey/Hellmuth/etc. are. We're talking about HOUSEHOLD names versus people who are only famous to the poker community at large.
To answer OP's question, no there aren't. That's largely because poker isn't on TV or in the mainstream eye as it once was. I have friends who don't even play poker that know who Ivey/Negreanu are. There's no poker pro post boom that can ever garner that level of fame now.
most people ITT are quite confused as to what being a "household name" entails. SeaKing got it right.
The only professional poker players who were ever true "household names" outside of the poker community are Amarillo Slim and Chris Moneymaker. If forced to add a third name to that list, it would probably be Annie Duke.
Moneymaker is the one and only. Hellmuth, Dnegs, Ivey and Brunson are probably the only other candidates but they are clearly on a lower tier.
Helmuth, Brunson, Dwan, Negreanu, Ivey, TonyG, Matusow, Antonius, Ferguson, etc.
These are the names I know. And still see on YouTube.
These were legit personalities and a whole cast of characters. Serious personalities for box office draw.
But, this is pushing 20 years ago. They are probably all retired now.
Am I out of the loop, or has poker become stuck in time?
Yes, you are out of the loop. None are retired and Doyle died.
The only professional poker players who were ever true "household names" outside of the poker community are Amarillo Slim and Chris Moneymaker. If forced to add a third name to that list, it would probably be Annie Duke.
Annie Duke just wrote a major article for WaPo
https://archive.is/pn46M
I remember during the 2010 WSOP they had Million Dollar freeroll, a few players could win their spot, 2 or 3 players got a spot from the WSOP board, and 20 players got in through a fan vote. So of course on 2+2 everyone was thinking "Well Durr, Phil Galfond, Jason Mercier....." they'll make it in. The 20 players who got voted in was legit every boom era player from 03-05. Ivey, DN, Doyle, Phil, Jesus, Chan, Allen Cunningham, Scotty, Barry G, Juanda, Seidel, Harman, Harrington, Lederer, Raymer, Hachem, Esfandiar, TJ, Farha.
Note one internet star got a sniff. That was the power of TV back then. I'm not sure how powerful it would be today, but if a vote was given to the general public again on something like ESPN, I would expect a lot of these names to be there. Jesus, Chan, Scotty, Harrington, Farha. The one name that would make it in today is Moneymaker. I still think they've done a heullva job today marketing Chris Moneymaker as an important player who kicked off the poker boom when by 2010 he couldn't even get voted to play a freeroll.
