Poker's Q Score: The Ten Biggest Names in Poker
If you’re a longtime reader of our site or column in BLUFF, you know we’re all about judging books by their cover, putting people in nice tidy little boxes, and giving everything a list or ranking.
So it only comes natural that we’ve been commissioned by the World Poker Council* to develop the first ever Poker Q Score ranking.
Over the past few months, we’ve paneled so-called “experts” in the industry – a mixture of players, media, agents, and fans – for their opinion on who are the ten biggest names in poker.
Through that feedback, we’ve developed poker’s version of a Q Score. For those unfamiliar, Hollywood uses Q Scores to determine a star’s likeability and popularity. We’ve taken that basic premise and expanded it, as poker is a little more complicated. Huge stars within the industry might be virtually unknown outside of it (think Tom Dwan), and bigger names to the mass public might ultimately not carry much weight within the industry (think Johnny Chan).
We asked our panel to judge players on the following criteria:
1) Who are the most popular/likeable players today?
2) Who are the most well known names to the mass public?
3) If every poker player was a free agent with no site affiliation today, who would get the largest endorsement deal?
4) What players are most likely to get a mainstream advertising sponsorship? And there’s the set-up. Here are the results:
1. Daniel Negreanu:
Not much of a shocker here. Daniel has been the biggest, most marketable name in the game for a few years now. He had his best year in 2004, right at the heart of the poker boom. He’s rumored to have the biggest sponsorship deal in the industry and, along with Phil Hellmuth, commands the highest appearance fees. Having Daniel on a broadcast is a sure-fire ratings hike (which is why he’s always on WSOP Day 1 ESPN featured tables), and he’s extremely popular among fans and within the industry. Daniel is one of the few guys who actively markets himself as a brand and openly engages various media forms to promote himself.
2. Phil Ivey:
In many ways, Ivey is the anti-Negreanu/Hellmuth. He almost goes out of his way to not engage the media or his fans. But in doing so, he’s built up a very marketable mystique to him. As one of our pollees put it, “Everyone wants to know what goes on in his world.”
He’s also the acknowledged best player in the world – in both cash games and tournaments. From a marketer’s perspective, he’s got an even greater commodity going for him: people refer to him as the Tiger Woods of Poker™. In reality, he’s the only poker player you could envision in a Gillette commercial standing next to the likes of Woods and Roger Federer.
Ivey’s November Nine™ appearance definitely vaulted him up a spot, as many acknowledged it wasn’t until the WSOP Main Event wrapped that they would leapfrog him ahead of Hellmuth. If Ivey does the improbable, overcomes Darvin Moon’s huge chip advantage, and wins the Main Event, he could very well catapult to the top spot on this list.
3. Phil Hellmuth:
From many perspectives, Phil Hellmuth should be the number one guy on this list.
Until Annie Duke’s appearance on the Celebrity Apprentice, Hellmuth is arguably the most well known name to the public. One of the people we surveyed summed it up well, “Everyone who’s ever seen any poker show has seen Hellmuth.”
Like major athletes, he truly markets himself as a brand. Like Negreanu (and unlike Ivey), there is a definitive ratings spike when he’s on a poker broadcast, more so than any other name in the game.
Hellmuth garners huge appearance fees and has even had his face on Milwaukee’s Best Light beer cans.
But Hellmuth takes some knocks in his score for likeability/popularity. While no one can take their eyes off of him, as one panelist said, “Hellmuth needs to realize that often people are more laughing AT him than WITH him. There’s a huge difference there.” However, we feel that part of Hellmuth appeal is being a heel, and he cultivates that “Poker Brat” image well. Our gut says as he eventually wins more bracelets, continues to mature and moves more into an elder statesmen role in the game, you’ll see his likeability rise considerably.
4. Doyle Brunson:
Along with Negreanu, Ivey, and Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson is the only other name to appear on everyone’s top ten. He’s respected by his peers, has a fair degree of mass public recognition, and is another television staple. Everybody loves Doyle.
5. Annie Duke:
Even before her appearance on the Celebrity Apprentice, Duke was a lock to make the list. But being a finalist on one of the most talked about reality shows of the year definitely boosted overall score.
Problem is, like Hellmuth, she isn’t that high in the likeability department. Save Joan Rivers spiraling descent showing her true colors as a complete and total bitch, Annie’s general attitude on the Celebrity Apprentice was the talk of the show, and not in a good way. Even after she said she gave great blowjobs (something if true, should at least boost her ahead of Hellmuth and Brunson).
Duke will likely slide down the list over the course of the next few years, but we can’t argue with her ranking for now.
6. Scotty Nguyen:
Nguyen has done a great job regaining his rep as the funloving Prince of Poker since his disastrous 2008 $50k H.O.R.S.E. victory. An eyeopener for us on Scotty was watching one of his Scotty Being Scotty reality vlogs on RawVegas.tv where he was literally mobbed by fans asking for his autograph while walking through (or at least trying to) the Rio Amazon Room. This went on for ten solid minutes. And then continued as he walked through PokerPalooza.
Nguyen also meets a high Q Score ranking by meeting other criteria: he’s appeared in a Pepsi commercial already and is the face of Swedish-based Expekt.com’s poker platform.
7. Chris Moneymaker:
Bottom line, how many people in the general public aren’t familiar with the story of the Tennessee account with the unbelievable last name who turned a $39 PokerStars satellite into a $2.5 million WSOP Main Event win?
Moneymaker ushered in the poker boom. He’s still amazingly relevant. We actually think that even ten years from now, he’ll still be on this list.
8. Vanessa Rousso:
Some would argue that 2009 has been The Year of Rousso. First, she appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition (albeit in a PokerStars ad). Then a few days after inking and starring in a GoDaddy.com commercial with Danica Patrick, Rousso finished second on NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Then she went on to win an EPT High Rollers event and had a decent WSOP.
As one industry-type told us, “She’s relatively attractive, really intelligent, and is becoming a great poker player.”
Even more than Annie Duke, she’s the new face of women in poker.
9. Gus Hansen:
When the Travel Channel started airing the World Poker Tour, Hansen captivated the TV audience with his unorthodox style of play.
He’s a good-looking guy with a cool vibe that people get excited to see play. While we don’t see him a permanent fixture on this list, he’s got huge international appeal (he really is “huge in Europe”), which keeps him in the top ten for now.
10. Johnny Chan:
The Orient Express appears on this list in 2009 for one reason and one reason only: his appears in the movie Rounders.
It’s amazing that someone who won back-to-back Main Events (and finished second the following year) and at the height of the poker boom was on the poker version of Mount Rushmore (along with Brunson, Hellmuth, Negreanu) is so completely irrelevant within the industry now. Chan has been a free agent more or less for a while now, especially since closing down his ChanPoker.net site. But he isn’t attracting any real sponsorship opportunities to speak of now.
But as one panelist put it, “Everybody knows who Johnny Chan is because of Rounders. That movie created a legend to the masses.”
And it’s true. While his lack of recent success and unlikeability in the industry has caused him to lack some general luster, if you were to ask the average guy on the street, “Hey, who is that really well-known Asian poker player?” the majority of them would answer “Johnny Chan” over Scotty Nguyen or anyone else.
In reality, we could’ve just as easily put Mike Matusow or Chris “Jesus” Ferguson in the ten spot, as they showed up on way more lists, but Chan’s general awareness to the mass public puts him at number ten, for now at least.
Honorable Mentions: Mike Matusow, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Patrik Antonius, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, “Salty” Joe Hachem, Erick Lindgren, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
*Completely fictional. Yet, it sounds like something that should exist. Maybe with a few superheroes on it too. And strippers. Lots of strippers. Actually, the whole council should be naked hot morally casual strippers. Greatest council ever? We think so. Pollack and Lipscomb, pull your resources together and make this happen.
