What is the Greatest WSOP Achievement of All-Time?
What is the Greatest WSOP Achievement of All-Time? Why?
Yeah, I just fact checked myself and I was right.
Hellmuth won:
Event #9: $5,000 Limit Hold'em
$5,000 buy-in 1993/04/28 1st $138,000
Event #8: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
$1,500 buy-in 1993/04/27 1st $161,400
Event #7: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em
$2,500 buy-in 1993/04/26 1st $173,000
Sorry, three years late with this correction, but ALL of the dates and order of events from everything before 2000 are suspect.
I wrote the following in my WSOP Top 10 Tuesday thread a few months ago:
Parts of this "fact" will be on multiple of my lists, but let me debunk the 3 days part now, because it's probably my number one peeve about the current online tournament databases (WSOP, Hendon, GPI, and CardPlayer at least, plus Wikipedia of course)...
There was a site called PokerPages.com that posted historical WSOP tournament results in April 2000. I don't know where they got their data from, so it might not be their fault, BUT, they listed most of the early years' results
It's pokah Phil!
Harrington also finished 6th in 1987, so I voted for him. Top 6 ME finishes in three different decades is pretty good. TJ Cloutier also did it, with four top 5’s, depending on how you feel about the year 2000.
I have a soft spot for Action Dan, so I voted for him.
Ungar cheating to win the main in 81 I think
I think that the greatest achievement would be any Player who has a positive ROI post Moneymaker .. without the 1-Drops. Of course we have no way of compiling this data without breaching a bunch of computers that are probably in a landfill somewhere or were deleted by the Rio pretty quickly to save space on their hard drive!
Ultimately we are all about winning and I'm glad the list doesn't include any 'all time' cashes stats.
I think the ultimate GOAT is Jordan in the NBA .. basically 6 straight titles. So you have quantity and longevity. Still a Playoff team without him, but a Winner with him. I would be willing to discuss that if any one Celtic in the pre Bird ear was missing that they still would've won titles.
Then you put Brady in the NFL .. again, quantity and longevity with some gaps
Then I think I put Tiger over Jack, simply because Tiger had a much greater number of very good opponents to beat than the 'less than 5-6' that Jack did. (This is a change from my previous post) Assumptions of Tiger's untraveled road can certainly sway you one way or the other about Jack being able to put in the extra volume. Tiger's win at The Player's coming back from the accident put me over the top with him.
So using that as a preface we can look at quite a few short term dominations in poker or we can look at PHell.
As with most of the votes .. and however begrudgingly it means the ego gets bigger .. I have to lean towards PHell being able to find his way into the winner's circle continuously as poker has evolved over the past 20 years.
The 'streak' guys are great as they held their perch and the field couldn't figure them out. Did they get figured out or did they just back off their own determination and/or other influences? That would be a great question. Both Adam and Grinder are still playing, but they are not limelight Players as other in the same fields have become, certainly since Covid. (And both had a flop of a year this year for sure!) GL
Not including Dan Cates back to back PPC is an egregiously large mistake. Toughest event to win by a large margin.
DanÂ’s first WSOP cash was in 1986 at age 40. HeÂ’s 7y 9m older than Ungar. HeÂ’s almost certainly the wealthiest ME champion, with only Furlong & Hellmuth close.
He won the MA state chess championship in 1971, same year the WSOP as we know it started. Pointless but interesting to speculate what his poker resume would look like had he been from a background like UngarÂ’s, or even just been born in Texas.
In a 2k 8-Game during 2015 WSOPE Berlin, i trashtalked Hellmuth, bluffed him succesfully and showed my hand, and then busted him. 😀
James Moore back to back in 2016 and 2017 super seniors: 1 in 1720 and 1 in 1476 = 1 in 2,538,720.
What about Joe Cada, 2x main event final tables.
And Mark Newhouse, back to back main event final tables
Chris Moneymaker proving that poker is just about dumb luck, is a huge standout moment.
Scott Seiver has since won three bracelets in the same year.
All of the modern poll options would fit better with the question "What is the most ridiculous case of sunrunning in WSOP history"
All of the modern poll options would fit better with the question "What is the most ridiculous case of sunrunning in WSOP history"
Jamie Gold, and no one will ever come close. Dude was either always ahead or sucked out in every hand for four days straight.
Joe Cada was down to one big blind on day five the year he won the WSOP ME.
