Secrets of the Amateurs

The $50K HORSE has started, but it's 50 runners down on last year. There's no doubt that this is because it's not televised. Even Stars and Full Tilt don't have bottomless pockets and they're understandably reticent to cough up 50 large for players to play a non-televised event. You would think that this is a good time to take stock and think, ok, the $40K has pretty much replaced this, and off to the glue factory with the tournament.

Daniel Negreanu, however, can't let it go. I get involved with him in this thread when I shouldn't have done, but his constant sophistry drives me round the bend. It is utterly transparent to me that Negreanu's problem is that he doesn't want to face two facts :

1) There are now loads of players who are as good as him at NL tournaments (or better)
2) No one wants to watch limit poker on TV

So he has no fast track to a TV final. He can't even play the "Invitational" because he's never won the ME. I bet he was grinding his teeth about that :-). A lot of these guys need to wake up and realise that they are extraordinarily lucky that they were playing well/running hot around 2003/4, when most of the TV stars were "created". If they were five years younger, they'd have no end of a harder task making it to the same level. I don't mind that, that's the way it happened and I accept it. But they also need to accept the way things are now, and demanding totally unnatural tournament structures to suit themselves is not the way to do it.

As for the sophism, it's funny that Negreanu reminds me of Annie Duke so much in this regard. It's no wonder they hate each other so much - people often hate what they see of themselves in others. /armchair psychology :-)

Playlist 2 (I think this one's my favourite !) :

Megadeth - The System Has Failed
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime II
Rush - Power Windows
The Good The Bad & The Queen - eponymous
Radiohead - The Bends
JJ Cale - Greatest Hits
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Various - Buddhist Chants & Peace Music
Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms (Disc 2)