Comments on: Bluff Power 20 Released

By: DanM

DanM — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:32:56 +0000

don’t know for sure, but conventional wisdom says Isai Scheinberg (PokerStars) and Ray Bitar (Full Tilt).

By: JamesDaBear

JamesDaBear — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:10:43 +0000

anybody have an idea who the top two were going to be?

By: Vern

Vern — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:46:45 +0000

This just in, Lance Bradley ranks Lance Bradley 16th most influential person in poker.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just kinda funny.

By: Eric Morris

Eric Morris — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:53:12 +0000

PD, you know I was just giving you shit. Its all in fun!

By: DanM

DanM — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:01:14 +0000

Are you serious? I thought this industry was controlled by Twitter.

By: Matthew Parvis

Matthew Parvis — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:56:09 +0000

No offense Eric… Here was my quote that went along with my ballot.

“And yes, I through myself in there as a joke. I believe that the poker media does not hold a lot of power in this industry, which is why you see none of them on my ballot. The industry is controlled by the sites, the players and the television producers IMO”.

By: Eric Morris

Eric Morris — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:57:10 +0000

Peeps,

there is always going to be controversy when a list gets printed, which is a good thing in my opinion. Reason being, is it gets people talking about the poker industry and where it has and will be going in the future. I myself believe there were some worth people left off the list, but at the end of the day we published the results from people involved in the poker industry. The list was not subjective at all. Good or bad the list is made up from many of your respected peers.

On a side note, PD Parv no one at Bluff even cracked your top 20? Perhaps we were 21 after you?

By: Haley

Haley — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:45:25 +0000

And no, Lipscomb shouldn’t be on the list, but Lyle Berman should. Also, whoever is the director of sports programming at ESPN these days gets a top 5 spot. Also LOL at Per Hagen getting a mention with his partial repping of Annette and a stable of otherwise second-rate Eurodonkeys. The Bax/Sheets comment is apropos, meaning #7 should have been “Joe Cada’s backer”.

Parvis’s commemt re: poker media is one of the few things I agree with him on. As long as poker media outlets cling to an increasingly antiquated affiliate system as their primary revenue stream, they have no real power.

By: Haley

Haley — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:37:05 +0000

I thought the list was 75% good and 25% high comedy.

By: Chris 'Homer' Hall

Chris 'Homer' Hall — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:06:58 +0000

At first I was going say there would be a collective ‘yawn’ from Europe as we laugh about the American power list. But then I thought about it and was actually struggling to think of that many Europeans who would actually make the list and other than Thomas Kremser I was struggling. The problem is that the list lacks creditability without any Europeans in it, but to put them in would skew the list as well, so the only solution would be to have an American list and a European list as well, with maybe some names like Tony G able to cross both.

Personally, I’m not a fan of these subjective things, I kinda think they’re all silly but I subscribe to Matt P’s viewpoint that no-one in the media should be in the top 20. The Bax/Sheets staking group is so huge that they would have to be in there now too.

A European list would hold much more interest to me as 2010 is going to be pretty interesting in terms of poker tours. There’s all the Stars tours going around plus Chilipoker now have a mini-tour, the Unibet tour has been going strong for a couple of years now (even having 400+ players when it clashed with an EPT) while Betsson and Betfair have the occasional tournaments as well. Add a few WPT’s in as well and you can see how packed the European schedule will be.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:39:59 +0000

This list is a joke….
Joe Cada 7th??, beating Negreanu??? Where’s Patrick, not to mention Durrrr…
Try again Bluff Magazine

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:36:20 +0000

Reading everyone’s ballots makes me want to hunt mine down, but that would require effort, something I am in short supply of today. I am very surprised I am the only one with Jim Ryan (PartyGaming CEO) on my list though. I know they aren’t the biggest site around anymore, but now that they own WPTE and are signing ppls left and right it certainly seems like they have big plans on the horizon.

By: DanM

DanM — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:26:56 +0000

maybe some second-print revisions? any inaccuracy drops Chops down on my list, lol.

regarding their names not being included … that’s a huge sigh in and of itself. i don’t think it should be their choice when they reach a certain level! ~~either you’re afraid of going to jail in this world or you’re not!~~

a) why would they be hiding? are they that altruistic that they don’t want credit for their good deeds.
b) why do they have any say in what bluff publishes?

kudos to bluff for putting this list together, but i hope they extorted at least a nice raise for lance out of letting their “winners” alter their original editorial concept.

powerful people without a public face is what makes people nervous in this industry or any others.

By: Kevin Mathers

Kevin Mathers — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:51:29 +0000

I got my copy of Bluff today, and for whatever reason, their list of the Bluff 20 has the following:

7. Barney Frank
8. Daniel Negreanu
10. Joe Cada

There was also an editor’s note is that the real 1 and 2 requested that their names not appear on the list.

By: DanM

DanM — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:18:28 +0000

And extra good job by Lance for creating this concept and pulling it all together. I still plan to make a little fun of him on the Radio for his ranking though.

By: DanM

DanM — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:08:38 +0000

I think the individuals who didn’t make the master list but got a few votes are probably some of the more interesting people in poker. Though I think all of our lists have arguably a flaw or two … which is what I guess the collectiveness was supposed to, and for the most part did, effectively filter out. Good job on all us voters who put some real thought into it.

I’m mostly intrigued by the names I don’t recognize.

By: Matthew Parvis

Matthew Parvis — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:34:02 +0000

Probably correct on that Kev. Probably why he was left off the actual list.

By: Kevin Mathers

Kevin Mathers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:23:32 +0000

Should Steve Lipscomb really be on the list, especially since he’s no longer part of the WPT?

By: Matthew Parvis

Matthew Parvis — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:57:05 +0000

Here was my ballot. Looking at it, I would change a few things as I obviously missed Mitch Garber. I had Pollack on there, as I think a lot of his initiatives and ideals for poker were still influential in today’s poker landscape. I probably also would have included some of the other online gaming CEO’s also if I had to do it again. And yes, I through myself in there as a joke. I believe that the poker media does not hold a lot of power in this industry, which is why you see none of them on my ballot. The industry is controlled by the sites, the players and the television producers IMO.

1. PS
2. FTP
3. Doyle
4. Howard Lederer
5. Mori Eskandadi
6. Daniel Negreanu
7. Mike Sexton
8. Tony G
9. Barney Frank
10. Jamie Horowitz
11. Jeffrey Pollack
12. John Duthie
13. Brian Balsbaugh
14. Steve Lipscomb
15. Ty Stewart
16. Jeffrey Haas
17. Jon Miller
18. Annie Duke
19. Joe Sebok
20. Matthew Parvis

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:27:23 +0000

And yes, I have a very US-centric list. Jeff Haas is definitely a glaring omission of mine.