Online Poker Nut!

Firstly I think it’s important to say that poker players do not become famous in the same way as many great sports men and women do, but you can say that they enjoy a lot of limelight though within the poker world, especially if they experience early success in their career.

You could perhaps say that high expectations that follow such early successes are partly to blame for some players seeming to fall below what is hoped of them afterwards. This can in some cases play it’s part, and I think for young players, suddenly having vast amounts of money can make it easy to lose focus too.

Players such as Phil Ivey have sometimes seemed to win less tournaments than you might expect given the brilliant start to their careers. You must remember though that these players participate in high stakes cash games of which there is no official record, and so the amount of titles and bracelets they win does not always give a full picture.

The hype surrounding someone like Phil Hellmuth as the record holder for bracelets is enormous, and you can sense the fact that many poker enthusiasts expect him to win a bracelet every year. We should not feel that such a player is under achieving if they do not, it is incredibly difficult to win one after all, and I don’t think Phil is affected by, or seems to mind the attention surrounding him at all.

Overall I think we can say fame plays some part in players not living up to the start that their career promised, and I can sympathise with that. But for every player who feels the pressures of their previous success, there are many others who also use it to drive them on to even greater things.