Unknown holds all the cards to win WSOP

[CrisBrown]

[ QUOTE ]
For the second year in a row, an unknown has come out of the internet ranks to win the World Series of Poker. Greg Raymer, a patent attorney from Connecticut, qualified on PokerStars and caught the cards to win the prestigious 2004 World Series of Poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

News wire story as printed in my local newspaper. So I guess until some AP/UPI/Reuters reporter has heard of you, you're just another unknown....

Cris

[Joe Tall]

caught the cards to win the prestigious 2004 World Series of Poker

This is awesome, since we all know all you do is have to gather the entry fee and get lucky to win. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Statements like this can create many a new poker players online and live, good stuff.

Peace,
Joe Tall

[andyfox]

Greg is an unknown (up until now, that is). We know him here, but he's not a famous name in the poker world (up until now).

[gisborne]

Luck is vastly more important than skill in any given poker event. I don't care how good you are, unless you are very lucky you will not win.

Just because we know him here at 2+2 does not disqualify him from being an unknown. Also, unknown does not mean bad player.

[SDA004]

wow do you really think luck is "vastly" more important than skill in a tourney? Thats a pretty pessimistic view of poker tourneys. I'd say the split is somewhere around 60/40 for skill/luck.

[Grivan]

You mean this isn't the poker world?

[Jurollo]

While luck is important in large tourneys it is not "Vastly" more important than skill. In large tourneys winning players will look back at various hands they were down preflop, or post flop to turn or river one of very few outs, however, that is the nature of the game. The way to win tourneys is to skillfully build your stack through small pots so you can survive when luck doesn't want to give you a helping hand. Bottom line is there are just as many unlucky beats a winning player will take in a tourney as lucky wins, the trick is having enough chips to survive, or staying out of the pots all together.

[jwvdcw]

[ QUOTE ]
Bottom line is there are just as many unlucky beats a winning player will take in a tourney as lucky wins, the trick is having enough chips to survive, or staying out of the pots all together.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree...when it gets to near the last 200 or so, luck becomes a major factor.

I usually play in 4-6 online multis per week(all of the $150 or more 'specials' at party)...I almost always make the top 400 and will make top 150 about 75% of the time. However, the ones that I've gone really far(final table or so), I've always gotten great cards down the stretch. Usually getting a bad beat at this point means you're out of the tourney, so I disagree that the winner of the WSOP overcomes many bad beats.

[fnurt]

Among players of equal skill, luck obviously makes 100% of the difference. But that's not the same thing as saying the game is all luck!

[Jurollo]

I know it comes down to some lucky flops at the end, many of the bad beats I spoke of come in the first few levels, when the good players are simply trying to slowly build a stack for later, rather than pushing all in. Later in the tourney it as much about your stack and positioning as luck.