Doyle Brunson

Aggressiveness: 5
Looseness: 4
Short-handed: 7
Limit: 7
No-limit: 8
Tournaments: 7
Side games: 8
Steam control: 7
Against weak players: 6
Against strong players: 8

Best game: All around great player
Weakness: Stamina is limited, although it has improved since gastric bypass surgery.

Doyle is the Arnold Palmer of poker: the king. A fiery competitor at over 70 years of age, Doyle remains one of top five players in the world. He was once strictly a no-limit specialist, but he probably became a top limit player when he was working on his Super System book. People who don't know him are amazed when he makes it to the final table of one of the few tournaments he enters each year. He is still a better player than all of the players on the tournament trail.

Amusing anecdote:

When I first started playing with Doyle, we'd play in out of the way places because some of the well known players didn't want public scrutiny. I would ask Doyle about the poker game, but he would always talk about the food spread at the game. He weighed 400 pounds and he'd say to me, “Look at those pork chops” or “Tell me if you've ever tasted a better sweet potato than those.” He seemed to get much more delight from eating than playing poker.

David Grey

Best game: Seven-card stud.
Weakness: Doesn't change pace well; inflexible in his thinking

If anyone plays by the book, David Grey does. He plays with good starting hands and generally plays them to the river. Of all the players who have tried an ABC approach to poker, David is the only one who has been able to compete at the highest levels. Solid, predictable play is often unsuccessful in high stakes games, but David has good self-control, knowledge of all games, and reasonable game-selection skills.

Amusing anecdote:

David says, “For twenty years when I have raised with a big up-card in stud, I have invariably had a big pair. But they always think I don't have it this time and they call me and chase me to the river and draw out on me. So it doesn't really matter if I tell them I have it again.”

Dan Harrington

Best game: I'm not sure, but he has some nice results in no-limit hold'em tournaments.
Weakness: He isn't willing to put much money at risk, even it is warranted.

Dan was a solid player in the ‘80's before moving on to a successful business career involving some sort of real estate loans. His running-buddy in the ‘80's was Ray Zee who always ridiculed tournaments (as did many winning cash game players) and advised Dan of the foolishness of playing in them.

What I like best about Dan is he not animated like a lot of poker players and not too full of himself. He is incredibly thrifty, to put it mildly. When Dan goes to a new venue his mission is finding the cheapest place to eat. I'm not sure if he owns a car and he used to rent rooms in friend's houses at discount rates even when he was well off financially.

Amusing anecdote:

When Dan made it to the final table of the 1995 World Series of Poker, he proposed a nine-way settlement to the other players. He explained how they would each get enough money that they could invest it and be rich. Chuck Thompson, one of the players and a friend of mine, rejected the idea and told the other players that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a million dollars. One by one, as each player got knocked out, Dan tried to sell the idea, even offering investment counseling. There were no takers and eventually Dan came away with the full million.

Daniel Negreanu

Best game: Omaha eight-or-better
Weakness: Efforts to balance his life lessen his money-making ability

Daniel has become a consistent winner at the $1000-$2000 level in a limited side-game schedule. Daniel's Bellagio WPT performance to capture the 2004 Card Player Player of the Year award was nothing short of historic. He also won the WSOP Player of the Year award – pretty impressive.

His light-hearted nature, good writing, and accessibility to poker enthusiasts have made Daniel one of the most popular players. Daniel is often mentioned as the top player by newsgroup posters. In the past, Daniel occasionally showed questionable judgment speaking his mind, but the grounding effect of the relationship with his fiancée Lori has helped him make better decisions.

Daniel's website: www.fullcontactpoker.com

David Oppenheim

Best game: All forms of limit poker, but short handed limit hold'em was his specialty
Weakness: Not as successful in tournaments as expected for someone with his ability.

David has been a winning side game player since he was a teenager and has been extremely successful playing in games one level down from the highest stakes games.
David was a bit of a maniac in his younger days, but hooking up and having a family with his sharp wife Kinsey was the calming influence he needed.

Amusing anecdote:

When David was young it was hard to bust him because he would always get in heated arguments with other players when he was losing, usually resulting in both players getting thrown out for the day. One time someone challenged David to name one high-stakes player whom he had not gotten in a big argument with. He pointed to me. To this day, David and I have never had an argument.

Erik Seidel

Best game: No-limit hold'em tournaments
Weakness: Seven-card stud and its variations

Erik was once a successful side game player, but he has dedicated himself to becoming a top tournament player. He is a great thinker who doesn't like to share his insights. He is excellent at mixing speeds and at playing with a diverse set of opponents. He is also a very down-to-earth person, a trait that seems to work against him since buffoonery makes for better television. He is easily one of the top five no-limit hold'em tournament players in the world, but is often overlooked.

Amusing anecdote:

Erik is very protective of his hole cards. Even at a final table with hole card cameras, he has occasionally hidden his cards. Most people assume he doesn't want to reveal his strategy. But maybe he doesn't want to show what good cards he catches! I remember back in 1994 when he won the $5,000 limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. I congratulated him on his win and with typical humility he said, “Actually, with the cards I held, it would have been embarrassing not to win.”

Erik Seidel

Best game: No-limit hold'em tournaments
Weakness: Seven-card stud and its variations

Erik was once a successful side game player, but he has dedicated himself to becoming a top tournament player. He is a great thinker who doesn't like to share his insights. He is excellent at mixing speeds and at playing with a diverse set of opponents. He is also a very down-to-earth person, a trait that seems to work against him since buffoonery makes for better television. He is easily one of the top five no-limit hold'em tournament players in the world, but is often overlooked.

Amusing anecdote:

Erik is very protective of his hole cards. Even at a final table with hole card cameras, he has occasionally hidden his cards. Most people assume he doesn't want to reveal his strategy. But maybe he doesn't want to show what good cards he catches! I remember back in 1994 when he won the $5,000 limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. I congratulated him on his win and with typical humility he said, “Actually, with the cards I held, it would have been embarrassing not to win.”

// necessary so we can print errors if they arise // For flushes and no-pair hands we just set the bits in the positions of the // five cards in the hand. For instance, an AQ962 flush is represented by the // binary number 1011010010010001. The first three bits, 101, denote the flush, // and bits for A, Q, 9, 6, and 2, which are actually bits 12, 10, 7, 4, and 0, // are set to denote those cards. unsigned handeval(int card[]){ unsigned isitstraight(unsigned); // this function will check for straights int suits[4] = {0, 0, 0, 0}; // for each hand this will contain the number of cards in each suit int ranks[13] = {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}; // for each hand this will contain the number of cards in each rank // Card values are 13 * suit + rank, where suits are numbered 0 to 3 // and ranks are 0 to 12. // For example, Ace of spades is card 51 // Seven of hearts is 31, and // deuce of clubs is 0. // When there are only five cards instead of seven, we will use -1 for // the value of the two vacant cards. int flushsuit = -1; // if flush exists, this will be 0,1,2,or 3 corresponding // to clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades. unsigned rankbits = 0; // this will have bits turned on from 0 to 12 that // correspond to cards in the hand from Deuce to Ace int cardsinhand = 0; // this tracks the number if cards in the hand for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++){ if (card[i] >= 0){ // we skip negative values for cards if (card[i] >= 52) { printf("Illegal card value. Cards %d %d %d %d %d %d %d.", card[0],card[1],card[2],card[3],card[4],card[5],card[6]); return ILLEGAL_CARD_VALUE; } for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) if (card[j] == card[i]){ // duplicate printf("Duplicate card. Cards %d %d %d %d %d %d %d.", card[0],card[1],card[2],card[3],card[4],card[5],card[6]); return DUPLICATE_CARD; } cardsinhand++; if (suits[card[i]/13]++ >= 4) // one more of this suit flushsuit = card[i]/13; // this is at least the fifth of this suit ranks[card[i] % 13]++; // one more of this denomination rankbits |= (1 << (card[i] % 13)); // turn on bit two less than card value // For example, deuces are cards 0, 13, 26, and 39, which are 0 modulo 13 // 1 is shifted left 0 times, and the bitwise "or" turns bit 0 on } } // end of "for" that goes through the seven cards if (cardsinhand < 5){ // not enough cards printf("Not enough cards. Cards %d %d %d %d %d %d %d.", card[0],card[1],card[2],card[3],card[4],card[5],card[6]); return TOO_FEW_CARDS; } if (flushsuit >= 0){ rankbits = 0; // reset since we will only include flush cards for(i = 0; i < 7; i++){ if (card[i] >= 0) // if we have a valid card if (card[i]/13 == flushsuit) // if card is in the flush suit rankbits |= (1 << (card[i] % 13));// set rank position bit if in flush } unsigned straighttopcard = isitstraight(rankbits); // check for straight if (straighttopcard != 0) // is there a straight flush? return STRAIGHTFLUSH + 169 * straighttopcard; int numbitsset = 0; // will use this to track how many cards are of flush suit for (i = 12; i >= 0; i--){ // go from highest rank to lowest rank if (rankbits & (1 << i)) // found a card in the flush if (numbitsset++ >= 5) // already have 5 in flush suit rankbits ^= (1 << i); // remove low flush cards } return FLUSH + rankbits; // bits of five highest flush cards are set } // end of flush "if" unsigned straighttopcard = isitstraight(rankbits); // not a flush; check for straight if (straighttopcard != 0) return STRAIGHT + straighttopcard; // In the statements below, variables are initialized to -1 to indicate // that they are undefined or "yet to be defined" int quadnum = -1; // this will contain the rank of quads, if they are present int tripnum = -1; // this will contain the rank of trips int highpair = -1; // this will contain the rank of the highest pair int lowpair = -1; // this will contain the rank of the second highest pair int kicker1 = -1; // use this with quads, trips, two pairs, and one pair int kicker2 = -1; // second kicker of trips or pair int kicker3 = -1; // third kicker in one pair hands for (i = 12; i >= 0; i--){ switch (ranks[i]){ case 1: if (kicker1 == -1) // any kickers yet? kicker1 = i; // i is highest kicker else if (kicker2 == -1) // is there a second highest kicker? kicker2 = i; // i is second highest kicker else if (kicker3 == -1) // is there a third kicker kicker3 = i; // i is third kicker break; case 2: if (highpair == -1)// if we haven't found a pair highpair = i; else if (lowpair == -1) // we have one pair; is there a second? lowpair = i; else if (kicker1 == -1) // we already have two pair; have we established kicker kicker1 = i; // use third pair rank as kicker for two pair break; case 3: if (tripnum == -1) // if we haven't found trips yet tripnum = i; else // we have two sets of trips highpair = i; // use lower trip for pair in full house break; case 4: quadnum = i; break; } } if (quadnum >= 0){ // quads if (tripnum > 0) // quads and trips kicker1 = tripnum; // use trips as kicker if (highpair > kicker1) kicker1 = highpair; // use pair as kicker return QUADS + 13 * quadnum + kicker1; } if (tripnum >= 0){ // trips or full house if (highpair >= 0) // is it only trips or full house? return FULLHOUSE + 13 * tripnum + highpair; return TRIPS + 169 * tripnum + 13 * kicker1 + kicker2; } if (highpair >= 0){ if (lowpair >= 0) return TWOPAIR + 169 * highpair + 13 * lowpair + kicker1; // We have only one pair and therefore three kickers. // There are (13 choose 3), which is 286, different three-kicker combinations. // (For each pair, there are actually (12 choose 3) combinations, but // it isn't necessary to use that fact here.) // We are doing all of this tricky combination stuff because we are trying // to distinctly represent 4 numbers from 0 to 13 with 13 bits. // If we weren't tricky, we would need to handle numbers up to 13 ** 4. // Unfortunately 13 ** 4 = 28561, which is greater than 8192, so we use combinations. int combnum = 0; // will count combinations until we get to 2, 1, 0 case while (kicker1 != 2){ // we are done when highest kicker is represent by 2 if (kicker3-- == 0) // lower kicker3 until we get to 0 kicker3 = --kicker2 - 1; // after decreasing kicker2, make kicker3 one less if (kicker2 == 0){ // did we lower kicker2 too far? kicker2 = --kicker1 - 1; // after decreasing kicker1, make kicker2 one less kicker3 = kicker2 - 1; // restart kicker3 one less than kicker2 } combnum++; // we have counted another combination } return ONEPAIR + 286 * highpair + combnum; } // only hands with no pair are left int numbitsset = 0; // will use this to track how many cards there are for (i = 12; i >= 0; i--){ // go from highest rank to lowest rank if (rankbits & (1 << i)) // found a card if (numbitsset++ >= 5) // already have five cards rankbits ^= (1 << i); // remove superfluous cards } return NOPAIR + rankbits; } unsigned isitstraight(unsigned rankbits){ // input is a rankbit which represents a five or more card hand // bits are set in the location of the actual card rank minus 2 // the function determines if 5 consecutive bits are set // and returns the highest bit position set in a straight int consecutive = 0; for(int i = 12; i >=0; i--){ if (rankbits & (1 << i)) consecutive++; // one more in a row else consecutive = 0; // start over looking for cards in sequence if (consecutive == 5) // has straight been located? return (unsigned)(i + 4); // highest card in straight } if ((consecutive == 4) && (rankbits & (1 << 12))) // 2,3,4,5 were in hand return 3; // wheel: Five is highest card; Internally a Five is 5 - 2 which is 3 return 0; // no straight }