If you caught the season premier of WPT season 6, Phil Ivey talks breifly about his short lived nick name "the Tiger Woods of poker", and how Phil himself made sure that Mike Sexton stopped calling him that.
I completely agree with Phil that the nick name is inappropriate, and that there really isn't anyone in poker who dominates the way the that Tiger dominates golf. (it doesn't take a genius to figure out why Mike Sexton really invented the nick name)
And while all sensibilities would indicate that Phil is right that no could ever dominate poker in the way Tiger dominates golf, I would like to play devil's advocate. First of all, remember that just a dozen years ago, it was thought impossible to dominate golf. A great golfer was someone who won an event or two a year; a quick look at the most successful golfers of all time shows that the very best ever averaged about three per year.
In an interview Tiger gave quite early in his career he stated that he wanted to win every week. This statement was considered an absolute joke at the time. Golf was not a game that one player could win week after week. Golf had too many variables, and required too much consistancy for anyone to ever win time and again. Then in 1999 Tiger started to turn this whole assumption on its head. You have to keep in mind when you hear the massive expectations that people have for Tiger this year that just a few years ago doing what he's done already would have been thought impossible; the only reason that the world expects it of Tiger now is that he has been doing the impossible for almost a decade.
I think that in many ways golf tournments and MTTs have a lot in common; the factors that are out of your control impact you in similar ways and you are competing with most of your opponents indirectly. Both have huge fields, and huge talent in a game in a game where one mistake can end your chances. It was long thought that no one could dominate golf, and it is currently thought that no one can dominate tournement poker; but even if there never is a Tiger Woods of poker, I think it is a mistake to say that there never could be one.
Remember that every sport, and every competitive event, has had records that "could not be beaten" or things that could not be done. All too often these records fall, and then are forgotten.
© Copyright 2008
7 comments
Wow, good blog
First of all, Tiger woods is a bot with a red shirt, an alien with a buick, the anti-parity of the entire sports world. He has every record in golf engrained in his mother-board for quick reference, for he will one day own them all. I, at 45 years of age, have never seen an athlete dominate any sport the way Tiger does. Not Jordon, not Brady, not Arod or Jeter, or even a pumped up Barry Bonds (who really should not even be mentioned in the same sentence).
Now, e may never see that kind of dominance simply because our fields at major champion levels allow for you and I to simply whip out the 'ol Visa card and, bingo bango, we are playing in the Masters, The US Open, and we don't even have a tour card. Now, I don't golf, but I don't think you or I could just show up at Augusta and get a tee time for the big one.
What I am trying to say is this. It really isn't a fair comparison. Poker is a game that you and I can take a shot at regardless of MY skill, therefore watering down the level of talent in any given field. To see someone dominate, well, I think we are watching a bit of it when you see a few of the same faces at the final tables every time we turn on the television, but that's gonna be about as far as that goes. If they would have closed the pro tourneys to amateurs years ago, then we would have seen domination from several players over the years. Stu, Doyle, Phil, Barry, Scotty....These may have missed out on that "Tiger" type of domination....
Good blog...
Well hell, if it wern't for luck, I guess I would win them all ! Sound familuar ? If Phil Helmuth has to acknowledge that the luck factor is this strong in poker, I guess this time I will have to agree with him. Ivey is a black man, and he is the best poker playing black man, that is the only way he can be compared to Tiger ! I think it is kinda racist of Mike Sexton to have made this comment, not that he meant it that way, it just came out that way.
It was a good show by the way, and hopefully someday I will be playing on one of those broadcasts, hope I am not card dead like Phil was tonight !
............play on .......Tc...........