Poker pro w/ most business savvy

[dstyle]

surprised that no one has mentioned Juanda or Chan. Juanda got an MBA and supposedly parlayed his early 90's big cash game victories into lots of successful investments insuring he'll never go broke.
Same thing for Chan--investments in businesses, real estate, etc.
Greenstein seems to invest his money well also--real estate

basically, while many of the "top name pros" consistently go broke, these pros have joined the top of the economic bracket through good poker skills and successful investing, and not playing way out of their limits that they can manage financially

Harrington has similar financial/business skills also

if anything, their biggest weakness (and other successful pros) is staking losing players who are their friends

in relation to strictly poker-promotion to the general public and takign advantage of easy opportunities, it's easily Danny N and Hellmuth first, then Lederer (with his commentating, dvds, shows, knob creek, etc.), Esfandieri (or maybe he just hypes himself up)

As self-marketing goes, it's a toss-up between Hellmuth, Negreanu and Annie Duke (I'm very surprised she hasn't been mentioned)with honorable mention to Phil Gordon, who's turned zero bracelets into multiple books and one sweet TV gig.

[Riverman]

I can't believe anyone mentioned Greenstein. His money management is admittedly horrendus- he went broke not too long ago playing chinese poker against Ted Forrest and his girlfriend. Also, his book could have been written in a way that would have sold way more copies i.e. more strategy. Finally, he has not aggressively attempted to capitalize on the boom away from the tables in any way (except his book, which I don't think was written to make a boatload of cash).

[BradleyT]

Ulysses,

I'd have to say Annie Duke or Jennifer Harmon.

[MyTurn2Raise]

[ QUOTE ]
I am going to throw Roy Cooke and Linda Johnson out there (although I don't know if Linda Johnson ever lived off of poker income alone).

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah...isn't Linda Johnson affiliated with the card player cruises sign-ups for party poker; nice affiliate gig that must be printing money

[djack]

hahaha.

you, sir, are a donkey. congratulations.

[mother_brain]

Greg Raymer should get an honorable mention.
His skills and honest personality mean that he is going to have staying power as long as he is in the game.

When you boil it down honesty and straightfowardness are what people really want in a salesperson. George Foreman would be similar.

Just kissing ass. But I don't think he will wear out like Hellmuth and The Mouth might.

[amulet]

Danny H and Bill B both posses tremendous business acumen. then there are the people who created other business prior to becoming pros, but i assume they don't count? examples of these are, lyle b, paul phillips, even phil gordon is surprising when you talk outside businesses. there are many others.

[TStoneMBD]

i think a better summary of what youre looking for is poker player who has done an excellent job of promoting their name. people are listing people who dont fall into this category.

phil gordon has done an ok job i suppose but its only because hes on celebrity poker showdown. hes pretty much an idiot imo.

noone comes close to hellmuth or negreanu, but i think hellmuth takes it by a pretty wide slandslide. he just has a distinguished and recognizeable image. daniel has done a great job because he is such a likeable guy and his wpt success certainly is helpful. i think daniel is getting more endorsements than phil is as of late which is probably the logical choice because daniel still has alot of room for image growth whereas phil really doesnt. daniel is a much better poker player and should outperform phil in the future even considering that phil stands to play more events. phil at least always has his wsop rings and wsop air time to fall back on. if daniel goes on a cold run of cards hell just become another gus hansen.

honorable mentions would have to go to mike matusow, gus hansen and chris ferguson. im sure matusow will have plenty of sponsorship deals in the future. he just has too much personality and household name going for him.

phil ivey has an insanely marketable name but he chooses not to cash in on it. you can also give mention to doyle brunson who has built extreme fame for himself. you might say thats only because of his success in the big games, but look at chip reese. his fame level is not anywhere near doyle's. doyle's name has sold books and he has his own internet poker room.

not sure if this is true or not, but doyle's name might have been the driving force in why mike caro has made so much money from poker... another guy whos done an excellent job in sustaining his name 10 years ago. his name is pretty much putty right now.

dont forget about dutch boyd. his name collapsed because he dropped off the poker planet but he had a real big run at making a huge name for himself with insane amounts of endorsements and such.

david williams has alot of potential if he has continued success and becomes a regular on the circuit.

[cwsiggy]

Howard Lederer will probably make more from Full Tilt this year than "most" top pros make in all cash games and tourney winnings combined. (He is President of Tiltware)