[InfernoLL]

I don't think that there's anything out of the ordinary about talking about a highly visible player on a TV tournament poker forum. The fact that he's possibly the most immature and egomaniacal player on the tournament circuit, combined with the fact that he's also supposed to be one of the best, makes this discussion completely worthwhile.

I personally think he's nowhere near as good as he's given credit for being. Look at the size of the fields in most of his bracelet wins, they're tiny compared to today's fields. He can whine about being outdrawn as much as he wants; he doesn't seem to realize that everyone playing in these tournaments has the same problem, yet none of the other top players manage to complain about it even 10% as much. If I was involved in a hand where he started moaning about my play, I'd tell him to stop being a baby and then possibly start criticizing his play. That would be fun.

As for a lack of fundamental knowledge of the cards, this is almost certainly true. No one has mentioned the fact that he made a real money wager that AKo was a favorite over AKs heads up. This is like 16 levels below the knowledge of any competent cash game player. Also, we've seen him multiple times quote odds that were just terribly wrong. Remember when he accused a guy of "drawing dead", and the guy won the hand at show down. That's just stupid, 5 outs isn't drawing dead. Maybe if he played cash games well he would know that.