Jackpot Jay: HOH fan!

[Kevmath]

His latest article is at:

JJ article (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lovinger/050524&num=0)

Kevin...

[ShawnHoo]

Jesus Christ, this guy is a [censored] idiot.

[RunDownHouse]

On a related note, the Sports Guy's page linked to Esfandiari's "Rocks and Rings" debacle as the most amusing link of the day or week, or whatever. Pretty funny.

[dabluebery]

He seems like a nice enough guy. I've read every column. I've tried to hear what he's saying, but he's a moron. An idiot. This last column of his, especially his diatribe on Internet players, is classic.

What he's just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in his rambling, incoherent response was he even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Every one of his readers is now dumber for having read it. I award him no points, and may God have mercy on his soul.

[ttleistdci]

You'd think after being berated by his readers for a full year, he'd get the point that his writing sucks. And his total generalization of "internet players" is f*ckin stupid. For those who didn't read the article (I encourage you not to), Jay says that those entering the WSOP, or any tournament, should beware of internet players because they'll go in with any 2 cards in any position. His reasoning? That internet players always know there's another tournament a few minutes away. So obviously they'd all be willing to blow the $10k buy in quick, right?

Ugh he's an idiot.
Why does ESPN pay him? Seriously...he sucks so much it gets me frustrated.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
You'd think after being berated by his readers for a full year, he'd get the point that his writing sucks. And his total generalization of "internet players" is f*ckin stupid. For those who didn't read the article (I encourage you not to), Jay says that those entering the WSOP, or any tournament, should beware of internet players because they'll go in with any 2 cards in any position. His reasoning? That internet players always know there's another tournament a few minutes away. So obviously they'd all be willing to blow the $10k buy in quick, right?

Ugh he's an idiot.
Why does ESPN pay him? Seriously...he sucks so much it gets me frustrated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much my exact sentiments.

Also, someone should tell him that Dan Harrington won the WSOP. Also, there have been much much much larger poker tournaments than a 800 and 2500 tourney.

[wall_st]

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Ugh he's an idiot.
Why does ESPN pay him? Seriously...he sucks so much it gets me frustrated.

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I think you can say this about a lot of the writers/anchors/announcers at ESPN (with the exception of the late great Hunter S Thompson), seriously think Norman Chad, or that other guy who doesn't know anything about poker, there is a lot of crap in this industry.

[ttleistdci]

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Ugh he's an idiot.
Why does ESPN pay him? Seriously...he sucks so much it gets me frustrated.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you can say this about a lot of the writers/anchors/announcers at ESPN (with the exception of the late great Hunter S Thompson), seriously think Norman Chad, or that other guy who doesn't know anything about poker, there is a lot of crap in this industry.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree there's some garbage out there and people who are paid to write just because of who they are (John Kruk and Phil Hellmuth come to mind). But Jackpot Jay has to be the worst.

I'm a big fan of good sports writing. I think Bill Simmons (also on ESPN Page 2) is incredible. I've been reading his columns for probably 8 years now...way before he made his way onto ESPN. Rick Reilly is another of my favorites. I don't always agree or like everything he writes, but either way, he does it well. I just finished Jim McManus' Positively Fifth Street...he's another good writer and I'll look into some of his other work after reading that.

Plain and simple: Jackpot Jay sucks. Did anyone else read/skim his All-In Awards? WTF was that? His writing has no style and no point. He's the worst of the worst.

[Kevmath]

[ QUOTE ]

Plain and simple: Jackpot Jay sucks. Did anyone else read/skim his All-In Awards? WTF was that? His writing has no style and no point. He's the worst of the worst.

[/ QUOTE ]

Next week's column addresses the previous two columns (Looking for a backer and the All-In awards). He says there's a point to them, and that the readers didn't really care for either one. The writer from the Chicago Tribune, Rosenbloom seems to do an alright job, when he doesn't rip off Arieh's or Negreanu's blogs.

Kevin...

[antidan444]

If I understand correctly, Jay does more editorial work than anything else. An editor's job, for the most part, is to find spelling, punctuation and grammatical and/or sentence structure errors. A person can be a VERY good editor without being a good writer (an editor doesn't have to be able to logically piece together an argument, or have much creativity, in order to do his/her job well. A writer, in order to be very good, must be able to do both).

Which is to say, Jay may be (and probably is) very good at his real job (editing), while being less skilled at writing and poker.

[meow_meow]

I loved the part where he says that he does better in satellites and live STTs than in live cash or "real" tournements, and then most of the reasons he lists as to why have to do with reducing the advantage that better players have over him (e.g. faster blind structures).

At least he knows he sucks.

[TomCollins]

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Jesus Christ, this guy is a [censored] idiot.

[/ QUOTE ]

But those crazy internet players could have anything!!!! They are impossible to put on hands! He needs to consider moving up in limits where players are more predictable and they respect raises more.

[Frills]

He makes me want to open an account at Captain Cooks

[dlk9s]

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I agree there's some garbage out there and people who are paid to write just because of who they are (John Kruk and Phil Hellmuth come to mind). But Jackpot Jay has to be the worst.


[/ QUOTE ]

To be fair to Kruk, he's a baseball player, not a writer. He does a good job in his Baseball Tonight analyst role - much better than when he had to basically be the butt of a fat joke on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

[ttleistdci]

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I agree there's some garbage out there and people who are paid to write just because of who they are (John Kruk and Phil Hellmuth come to mind). But Jackpot Jay has to be the worst.


[/ QUOTE ]

To be fair to Kruk, he's a baseball player, not a writer. He does a good job in his Baseball Tonight analyst role - much better than when he had to basically be the butt of a fat joke on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly my point. Kruk is a baseball player, not a write. Hellmuth is a poker player, not a writer. Jackpot Jay is...well I don't know, but he sure as hell ain't a writer!

[Easy E]

By inference, anyway. My favorite part of his latest article:

<font color="blue">"This, by the way, is one of the reasons vastly superior players like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, et. al., will probably never win a WSOP main event. They can be 100 times better than the average Internet player – 200 times better! – which simply means that they are 100-1 or 200-1 favorites over any particular individual Internet amateur who manages to get into the main event. Nonetheless, invariably, the sheer volume of reckless competitors will be enough to eliminate them, somewhere along the way.


<font color="green">What can you do about it? For once – perhaps the only time – just what the pros will be doing: Don't chase, don't bluff, don't get fancy, on the rare occasions you get the nuts, bet them in a straightforward fashion, don't assume anything, and unless absolutely necessary, avoid all-in confrontations with well-stacked, unpredictable, unreadable foes for as long as you can. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.</font></font>

So, to paraphrase Jay's conclusions: the best pros will probably never win, only reckless/clueless Internet players can win the WSOP main event now..... and let me go on to recommend that you follow the strategy that the pros are going to use... the ones that can't win anyway.

Oh yeah, I'll stop playing until the WSOP because I can't play without losing and that gets me in the mode of being a loser... plus it would be embarrassing to go throughout the year on my Holy Grail quest and end up losing money, once I dump another ten grand in June. So, I'll just stop now when I can guarantee that I'm "ahead" for the run.
(then again, since I didn't keep records that tell me how I'm doing in different games and tournaments, how do I even know where I'm at for ytd cash?)

Did I miss anything else?

Hey, Fossilman, don't you feel like a total fake now, taking that money last year from better players? I think you should return your share to the prize pool, you incompetent Internet wanna-be pro... Personally, I'd be embarassed to call myself a poker player if I were you. Good thing you didn't turn pro until after you lucked into your WSOP win

[LinusKS]

You people are relentless. However, JJ's main point - that the amount of chance involved in the WSOP is so high that no individual player - no matter how "good" he is - is likely to win it - has been made many times before, including by writers whose books y'all revere.

[InkyWretch]

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I'm a big fan of good sports writing. I think Bill Simmons (also on ESPN Page 2) is incredible.

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How can you be a fan of good sports writing and think Simmons is incredible? He's nothing but a fanboy blogger who relies on crutches (running diaries of events, pop culture references, catchphrases) rather than solid writing and reporting and insight.

[ttleistdci]

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I'm a big fan of good sports writing. I think Bill Simmons (also on ESPN Page 2) is incredible.

[/ QUOTE ]

How can you be a fan of good sports writing and think Simmons is incredible? He's nothing but a fanboy blogger who relies on crutches (running diaries of events, pop culture references, catchphrases) rather than solid writing and reporting and insight.

[/ QUOTE ]

And you're basing this opinion on, what, all 2 of his articles you've read? If you think he's a "fanboy blogger" then you obviously haven't read many of his articles.

[Blackjack]

I think he likes the pretty colors on the front of the HOH book.

[Matt Williams]

Bill Simmons rules. As a Yankee fan, the first thing I thought of when Boston beat NY to go to the WS was that stupid birdcrap on his shirt.