Though I will stand by my position that pre-tourney exuberance is something that players who succeed in tournaments keep in check, I don’t really disagree with any of what you say about the importance of recreational players. In fact, I don’t think all of them are any more “donkey-ish” than some unknown who insists on declaring his pro status before playing like a donk. That, after all, is kinda the definition of a donkey — someone who overestimates their own abilities and acts a little assy in the process.

At the same time, there is a certain reality about what to expect in a $1,500 WSOP NLH event. Just last night, I was giving a bit of a pep talk to one of my friends who is still alive in the event … She had plenty of chips and I was telling her to slow down, no matter how good her read was on a player or situation. (She is not a pro, though she probably considers herself semi-pro.)

“There is no situation where your opponent can make a wrong move and you can say, ‘Can you believe he called with x-x?!?’” I said. Because it’s true. If she loses chips in that sorta situation, it won’t be because anyone made a stupid or ridiculous play against her … it will be her fault for being too stupid to realize what is actually possible in a field loaded with players capable of anything.

Interestingly enough, she did not take my advice to heart and got involved in a few too many hands before getting lucky to double up at the end of the Day … leaving her with slightly fewer chips than she woulda had had she simply gone home at the last break.

I am not surprised there are people who agree with me. I know it from talking with other guys like me while I was out at the WSOP a few weeks ago when I played an event. I think the pervasive negative attitude towards people who like to play but don’t make it their life is beyond tiresome.

Let me give you an example that illustrates how pervasive that attitude is. I was playing in a Venetian DSE a few weeks ago. I was in the big blind. Guy on the button, who mentioned a few times that he was a “pro” and played for a living, raises on the button, like he did pretty much every time. I had Jc10c and decided to make a move on him. He had me covered by only 2.000 chips. He calls me with Kc2c. I spike a jack on the flop and take down the pot. Then it starts. He goes on and on about me being a donkey, I have no idea how to play, that he is a pro and would never do something like that. Of course, he ignored the fact that he CALLED with K-2 and I called him on it, reminding him there is a difference between betting and calling. I knocked him out the next hand and it started again, calling me a donkey, idiot, etc.

I have been playing for 20 years. I have made some nice scores and have also taken some bad hits. I don’t have the specific numbers, but I know I am up for life, although I won’t be retiring on it anytime soon. I am a family man first, a lawyer second, and a poker player third. I am beyond tired of this site and other sites, and many so-called pros and self-proclaimed great players acting like a guy like me is something to be mocked and insulted.

I love what Moneymaker did. Yet, he has been mocked, ripped, and called everything you can think of because he hasn’t matched the ME win. What makes me laugh is that he is mocked by guys who would kill to do what he did. Anyone who has placed their money on the table in the WSOP would love to do what he did. Yet, I have watched Moneymaker handle it with some real class and I credit him for it. The only thing I have against Moneymaker, and I told him this when I met him a few years ago, was that thanks to him I can’t get a decent stud game like I used to.

Go ahead and keep up the jokes on the “donkaments” if it makes you feel good. Just don’t expect all of your readers to keep coming along with you on it.

I never realized there was so much love for the punctual. My editors have been trying to get me to see this for years!

Ed, thanks for trying. I don’t really want your WoW warlord to die — I consider you a good friend and therefore only want you to suffer. I do feel bad though for that time I did that thing to your quesadilla.

I would be more worried if I WAS a donkey than if somebody called me one. In fact, if you ARE good enough, wouldn’t you rather fly under the radar and fool everyone?

The antics of the loudmouths we all know so well are designed to distract you and get you off your game. If pre-tourney comments are that effective, what’s gonna happen DURING the event?

Like good athletes, good gamblers need to have a thick skin.

P.S. Dan, I tried to do the edit…but you were right. That list is breaking everything when you click save. Too many quality players in that event.

I have seen the true side of some I respected and admired in the poker community and I do not enjoy hearing unwarranted and untrue comments about me.

I am a profeesional in my field and I do not and will not ever have and ego. I am no better than anyone in this world and those that think they are or like to make fun of a fan or person who enjoys the sport of poker and has contributed to their cause to make their site better can find another to shit on because I would never treat anyone like I have been.

Dan to end this here and now its just my way of venting for one last time, because the “Deputy” will only be seen and not heard any longer in any forum or coversation with any semi or professional poker player other than a few who have been at my charity events.

Also the Poker media truly needs to appreciate the other thousands of fans who support forums and poker sites like I use to.

Thaanks for allowing me to post and voice my opinios here in the past, but I will be moving on..

Scott

I have a very good outlook on life after all the crap I have seen in my job. Poker more or less was a blessing for me because it took my mind off of all the death and destruction day in and day out.

Poker Pages gave me a shot at blogging because Justin Smith the editor at that times fatehr was once a cop.

Gary Wise then allowed me to blog at his site and my play was followed by many as I blogged about my experinces in Poker.

I have a wpt press pass and the powers to be at Commerce and the Bicycle casino have graciously allowed me on the floor to report about their events even when I am not playing.

Poker Road came around and Barry encouraged me to post some videos in the forums and I enthusiastically did. I have never asked anyone for money and never would to write and Vblog about my experiences and have enjoyed and been very thankful so many named and not so named people allowed me to interview them to post.

I have been labled as a GROUPEE a WANNABE and other snide remarks have been made about me.

I am one of those also that would LOVe to play in the WSOP like the other thousands of amazteurs who make this series so popular. I could have played in two but saved my satellite winnings because my family came first.

I have had more crap talked about me in the Poker Community than by an criminal I have ever arrested by so called Professional Players.

If it were not for people like Vinny and i ther would be NO WSOP as it is today, more like the days of old.

Moneymaker brought all us Donks in and professional players should act professional and so should the people who report and write about tournaments. because without us Donks you would be writing about other things or standing in the unemployment lines.

I no longer blog or post in the Poker Road forums maybe I need to just start hiding out in the 2800 player fields and the 50.00 evening tournaments.

Bravo Vinny for posting the truth here,

I still think, though, that we may start calling them Super-Amazing Pokerthons here … or the 1500 SAP.

Vinny B. — I proudly call the $1,500 no-limit hold’em events “Donkaments,” but I don’t do it to denigrate the players. I never, ever call players I don’t know “rookies,” “amateurs,” or “donkeys,” and I never have. I call them “unknowns” (which is exactly what they are), or describe them by their seat or their position in the betting action.

The word “Donkament” is simply a verbal indication that getting through a field that large, with relatively few chips and a fast blind structure, requires a fair amount of luck. Steve Sung, the pro who won the four-day, 6,000-player, $1,000 “Stimulus Special,” will readily admit as much.

The simple fact is that there aren’t 2,700 quality poker players at the WSOP. But those bad players can be potential landmines for the good players, who sometimes overthink situations involving players they don’t know. If you play in the $1,500 no-limit event, it is a vastly different experience than playing in the $5,000 no-limit event.

So I make no apologies for calling a $1,500 event with 2,700 players that finishes in three days a “Donkament.”

And one of the biggest introductory tournaments in Dallas was called the Rounder Club tourney. It was a $35 buy-in, but really a $25+10. With that kinda rake, it was near impossible for a player to make money … but it was the only way the house could justify it, and players still came because they wanted a $35 event with 80-100 players to practice their game.

And yes, I realize that Harrah’s not running the WSOP as a non-profit operation.

Not sure where you are going with this. What’s wrong with taking a vig? That’s always how it is … lower buy-in tourneys come with more rake. You can say it’s because those players are less clued in, but hey, running a 1,500 donkament Amazing Pokerthon is far more costly than running, say, the $50k HORSE.