Paul Darden Jr. "The Most Overated Player In Poker" *DELETED*

[Unknownplayer]

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[PAUL-IN]

last year at the world poker finals Darden and I started two events at the same table, and in one of them he was to my right. I chatted with him and he seemed like a totally decent guy. Yes, he was playing horribly fast, and I did manage to singlehandedly bust him the first 30 minutes, but i can't agree or refute your claim about his play. But the tone of your post seems extremely negative and meant to slander his reputation. not cool.

anyway you seem to have some issues. try to work them out, and "by the way", look for a glaring error in your post that renders your post somewhat unbelievable.

PAUL-IN

[bigfishead]

While I do not know about him as I have not dealt to him personally I can tell you about many high stakes players like this.

Wanna know who the kings of posh and decentcy as well as play good are? I've dealt to then all in games from $300-$600 to $1000-2000 blinds pot limit omaha.

They are in no particular order.

Doyle, Bobby Baldwin, Chow, Chip Reese, Daniel Negraneau,
Robert Williamson. I have dealt $250k cash pots to these guys and they were gentlemem at the table. As for tipping they would usually have a set amount for the dealer for his "down" when he came in and you wouldnt see any further tipping except from Williamson and Daniel. Daniel just an extra buck or two But always a prince at the table. Even when I saw him hammered on Coronas.

As for your story of Darden there are at least 3-4 I know of right off hand that have had articles written about them in the last 2-3 years that are just as bad as you describe and even worse. Even some women that are worse.

If only everyone was a Tommy, or a Daniel.

[Big Ray]

I was at the final table of the $1000NL event he won on the cruise and he seemed totally professional to me. He spent some time of his break chatting to me, before he went back to play Phil and Scotty. He was very polite and offered some unpatronising advice to which I was very greatful.
I don't know anything about his ring game play but I would back him to win a major tournament very soon.

Big Ray.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

What purpose does this post serve? It can't be for our benefit, but clearly you just wish to say bad things about somebody. I guess he was playing bad, losing to everyone else, but constantly beating you? That's my first guess.

I've played quite a few hours with Paul, and I've heard lots of negative comments about his play, especially his play a few years ago. I can't speak of all his play, because I've only seen about 50 hours of it. Paul has some excellent poker skills, especially at putting players on a hand. I've never seen him try to "bully" the table the way you describe, even when he's playing more hands than is probably optimal, and playing them aggressively. Maybe you've seen him on tilt.

However, even if every word of your post is true and accurate, the only point of posting it must be sour grapes of some sort. Jealous that a player over whom you feel superior is getting all the press, maybe?

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[JayKon]

Posts like this are the reason I left RGP.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Although I agree with you about not wanting this forum to become like RGP, and also agree that this post was a bit out of line, and finally, 2+2 has every right to edit their board as they see fit, here I go:

It seems odd that it's OK to call Phil Hellmuth names right and left, but when *one* poster criticizes Paul Darden, ostensibly based on personal observation (and I'm not judging the veracity of his observations), he gets deleted.

I fervently hope this isn't some PC "better not attack the black guy or we might get called racist" BS.

And, Matt, I'm not even accusing you of that. It's just a concern that popped into my head. I actually think that those who replied to the original post did a fine job of policing the standards of conduct.

[JayKon]

Hmm, perhaps I should be a little more clear.

I left RGP because of all the non-how-to-play-better-poker posts. That is what this was. I could care less who the target is. Heck, I assumed he was white, or asian - no clue he was black, nor do I care.

As to bashing Phil, I've never seen a post like that on 2+2, though it may easilly be out there. If I did see one and it also had nothing to do with playing better poker, I would expect that one to get deleted too.

Now if you choose to reply, I'll let you get the last word as I would now like this thread to die, Die DIE!

Jay