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Comment by lintiness | Hacker News Reader

"Jason Les, Dong Kim, Daniel McAulay and Jimmy Chou ..." are the pros? not exactly ivey.

They're heads-up pros. Ivey and many other well-known names are not heads up specialists like these competitors. They'd likely have an edge over almost any "recognizable" name player.

Ivey played successfully at the nosebleeds in HU, he'd crush face. He's probably a step below durrrr, galfond and blom, but still really really good.

i'm informed and know next to nothing about two of the names. there are plenty of guys out there the poker world recognizes as better players.

Jason Les and Dong Kim both played in the previous competition, with Doug Polk (arguably the best heads up player in the world). They're reasonably in the discussion, and other factors such as interest and availability possibly factored in.

you're missing part of the point.

The $200k pool of money for an actual 'celebrated' poker player is absolutely not worth the time and effort. Hence why you get a few tiers down in terms of player skill. Still valid tests though, you can't only compare it to the top 1%

It's not a few tiers down in skill, it's a few tiers down in fame. Each of the four players named is likely a favorite over Ivey in this format. Being a specialist counts for a lot here.

Ivey played HU vs. Tom Dwan, Galfond, Blom, etc. and did fine. There's no way they're favorites against Ivey.

Galfond thinks otherwise. From the article:

“Your favorite poker player almost surely wouldn't agree to play any of these guys for high stakes, and would lose a lot of money if they did,” Galfond added. “Each of the four would beat me decisively.”

Interesting, because for the durrrr challenge Galfond was named as the only person Tom Dwan won't play. Maybe I've been out of the loop too long.

Yeah these would not be considered the world's best HU NL players anymore.

Names like Ben Sulsky, Doug Polk, Isaac Haxton would be big favourites over your lineup.

Galfond while still playing is playing mostly Omaha

Ivey is a whale. He got a lucky a few times and got on TV a lot as a result, but he is FAR FAR from a top professional player.

How do you measure who is "top professional player"?

Is this list COMPLETELY inaccurate? Why? Has it ever been? Which list is better?

https://www.highstakesdb.com/poker-players.aspx?sortby=winne...

All-time winnings is not the best measurement as it doesn't take into account things like years played/measured, single individual large wins, etc. It's a decent list for one mode of inspection (winnings) but shouldn't automatically be taken as a ranking of players by skill.

Ivey is a very good player, for sure. In the context of HU play (as being discussed in the article), there are better.

Top level play in poker evolves at a metagame rate as fast as any e-sport.

https://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles/Phil-Ivey.aspx

Ivey's last big win was 2009, and his last win of any kind was in 2011.

That looks much more like he quit playing online. Saying he 'just got lucky a few times' is very odd. Ivey is considered one of the top pros by virtually everyone.

His live tourny stats: http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=127&_ga=1.1...

Beyond that, he (like many top pros), prioritizes lucrative cash games over tournament play (or exploiting an edge at baccarat, if the opportunity arises) which we can't track.

Here are two great hands by Jason Les: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RivUSJdrKnU

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