Is Phil Gordon really any good?

[Daliman]

Ok, i know he's pretty good, but it seems to me he has no more poker sense than any other decent tourney player, but can be more aggressive/take more chances since the money means next to nothing to him. Easy to call 300K more with A7o to a reraise for the titlewhen you're not worried about feeding the kids or paying the mortgage with your winnings. I Feel the Same about Ron Rose, (and have posted smae before), and to a VERY SLIGHT extent, Paul Phillips, bu tI think paul has a lot of game though. Not that a 10K buyin or even a million dollars means a hell of a lot to guys like Brunson, Greenstein, Reese, and Ivey, but at LEAST they usually play as if the money means somehting to them.
His K3 bluff looked brilliant, but, in context, wasn't that hard to see as the right play. THe hard thing is pulling that trigger and, since the money means little, it's that much easier. If I'm in that situation, I probably have to check, as I'm still chip leader and cant see bluffing 400K or so more that would bump me to like 3rd chip position. I'd be kicking myself if i'd tried it been called. Not that he doesn't care about he title, but this makes 3 straight WPY events I've seen him in that he's made a lOT of amateurish plays in. If this guy didn't have a big BR, I don't think he could make a living playing tourney poker, and I can guarantee he wouldn't have the same amount of success. He and Ron Rose are what i call "Bankroll Pros". I really don't even consider them professional players, as professional denotes doing it as a means of income, and they do it strictly for the competition. MAn, it realy sounds like i think PG and RR suck; I don't. I just don't think either one of them are any better than you average decent tourney player. I've seen both of them make some plays that could at BEST be described as weak. I know both of them know the game, but sheesh, enough with the rolling of the dice in poker, guys.

Also, he normally seems like a real nice guy, but I did'nt really care for some of his comments;i.e. " I knew you were on a steal" when MM had AQh which he Re-Reraised with.
#1 Shorthanded, in that case, AQh isn't a monster, but it's solid, and i'd HARDLY call it a steal hand, ESPECIALLY if I only have 99. Not like he has JJ-AA/AK or anything.
#2 MAN was that AJ call HORRENDOUS! He called like 300K more with a RERAISER BEHIND LEFT YET TO ACT! What did he put MM on? AT? Even if he put him on 99 or TT(below 99 just isn't feasible, as 99 BARELY is), hes on the wrong side of a coinflip.
Not that he hasn't had great luck in the past, but MM had some fairly crappy luck in the 1.5 hours I saw. He played better than everyone there in my opinion, and deserved to win.

P.S. It seems the WPT cant mention WOrld Series. Seemed funny them calling him "major tournament winner CHris Moneymaker". "THE major tournament winner Chris Moneymaker" would have been better. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]