Let me preface what I am about to write by saying that I am not really a “fan” of any poker professional. I view professional poker players as peers of mine the same way an NBA player might view Lebron James or Kobe Bryant as peers, rather than someone they are a “fan” of. I also am not typically over impressed with any particular poker player. I’m not saying I am necessarily better than the players I am not impressed by, but rather I feel like most of the big winning pros all make pretty good decisions. And while some may be better in some areas of their game, they may not be as strong in others.

Poker is really not a lot different than most sports. In golf, they say “chicks dig the long ball.” In baseball, the home run hitters get all of the attention. In basketball, it is the slam dunk. In poker it is a the bluff. And the players who are the best at bluffing get most of the attention. But just like dunking doesn’t by itself make you great in basketball and hitting 300 yard drives doesn’t make you great at golf, being a good bluffer doesn’t mean you are great at poker. I am not a flashy poker player by any means. If I were to compare my poker game to an athlete, I might be like a Cal Ripken. I don’t do anything particularly flashy, but I give it my best day in and day out. I have had good results for millions and millions of hands and while I may not be hitting 50 dingers a year, I get a few in here and there.

But like in any sport, there are the players who can do it all. Tiger Woods is the obvious example in golf. He hits is long, makes everything, has the best short game on tour and never beats himself. Michael Jordan had these same qualities of course. In fact once upon a time, in golf there was the “Big 3,” which consisted of Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. These were 3 guys who could do it all AND they were all butting heads against each other day in and day out during the same era. Well, if anyone is asking me, I think we have a “Big 3” in poker right now which is pretty special. Durrrr, Phil Ivey and Patrick Antonius.

Having skipped most of the poker TV shows over the past few years, I became inspired to watch some of them again after I received an invitation to play in THE BIG GAME over in London (which will air this summer). I wanted to get a feel for it since I was going to be playing (and as it turns out, commentating) on the show. After watching a ton of episodes of Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker, among other shows, there is no doubt in my mind that Patrick, Durrrr and Ivey are the best 3 no limit holdem players in the world right now. In fact, I don’t think it’s close.

Phil Ivey tends to get a lot of love from everyone, but I see an unbelievable number of people, some even pros like Hellmuth and Matusow, who think Durrrr is just lucky or is on a good run. Let me say this much, the reason why people (Hellmuth and Matusow included) think Durrrr is just lucky is because they don’t even understand the plays he is making. There is no nice way to put this, Durrrr is so far above their heads they don’t even know what they are saying.

Here is a hand I watched last night which illustrates what I am talking about. I can’t remember which season of High Stakes Poker this was, but the hand was something like this:

All Players were at least 200bb deep and most were 400-600bb deep. Barry Greenstein raises AA from UTG. Durrrr calls with QTs and pretty much the entire table calls. They go to the flop 7 ways and the flop comes down T22 rainbow. Barry lead into the entire field with AA for about $10,000 into a $20,0000 pot. Durrrr was next to act and he raised to over $30,000. The rest of the field folded, but Peter Eastgate called the $30,000+ cold from the small blind. Now many people are watching Durrrr and thinking, “Why on earth is he raising top pair here? Barry raised UTG and bet into 6 other players, he obviously has an over pair.” Well, you see, Durrrr looks at poker a little differently than most people. He knows he doesn’t have the best hand, but because he has a ten, unless someone has the other miracle pocket TT, there is no way anyone will be willing to get the money all in for a half a million dollars without the nuts. He used the fact that he had a ten to eliminate anyone possibly having a hand they would actually be willing to go all in with, given how deep stacked everyone was.

So back to the hand. Peter Eastgate flatting the raise and the re raise from the SB basically told Durrrr he had 3 2s. There is just no other hand he could have that would flat from the small blind. Barry called, which I don’t like given he should know he has 2 outs. Anyway, Peter and Barry checked to Durrrr and Durrrr did something that only a very special player would do. He continued with his bluff believing that since it was so unlikely anyone could have TT, he felt no one could actually commit their entire stack to the hand. He made this bluff KNOWING that Eastgate had 3 of a kind! Durrrr bet about $110,000 and Eastgate reluctantly folded as did Barry. Eastgate knew that while he had 3 2s, all he could beat was a bluff by Durrrr. The only hands Durrrr would probably play this way by the turn are bluffs and TT specifically.

Comments were made at the table about Barry throwing away the best hand, which is shocking that people didn’t look to Eastgate as the guy who very obviously had the best hand in that spot. It is obvious that Eastgate had a 2 in his hand and Barry had the overpair, given Barry raised UTG and bet into 6 other people. But this just shows just how far ahead Durrrr is from even some of the best players in the world on High Stakes Poker.

I don’t have specific hands at the moment, plus this blog us running long, to illustrate why I feel Ivey (other than the 52o hand that you can watch Phil Ivey 52o Hand and Antonius are among the top 3 in the world, but it is probably pretty obvious to anyone who has watched poker over the years. Those two guys are beasts and I don’t think anyone is going to argue with me putting either of those two guys among the 3 best no limit holdem players in the world. I think largely I just wanted to voice my opinion on Durrrr after seeing an unbelievable amount of comments from some name players who act as if Durrrr is some crazy bluffer on a good run. For Phil Hellmuth to say things like, “We’ll see if you’re around in 5 years” in insane. The only way Durrrr won’t be around in 5 years is if he dies by a freak accident or if he makes so much money he decides to retire or do something else with his life. Durrrr is an absolute animal at the tables, seems like a really nice guy from what I have heard/read and I think the poker world should be appreciative that such talented poker players such as Antonius, Ivey and Durrrr are willing to regularly showcase their talents on television for the rest of us to learn from and admire.

I also owe Durrrr a ton of thanks because his style is so difficult to emulate that few, if any people should really be playing that way. And because everyone tries to be Durrrr online, despite not having the requisite skills to actually play that style, it has resulted in a pretty tidy profit for me as I sit back and wait for my competitors to dump their chips into my lap with some ill conceived, poorly timed bluff.