8 ms·
Hikaru is to chess what Doug Polk is to Poker
by arrakis2021 5y ago
Hikaru is to chess what Doug Polk is to Poker
- muh_gradle 5y agoGreat analogy. Love both of 'em.
- garbagetime 5y agoHe was relevant at the top level of the game for a short period of time but only in one fairly obscure format?
- tzs 5y agoHe reached #2 on the active rating list and #5 on the all-time rating list in classical chess. Do you consider classical chess to be a "fairly obscure" format?
- garbagetime 5y agoThe things I said are true of the poker player Doug Polk. Doug Polk was one of the best 2-player Texas Hold'em poker players on the internet for a couple of years, but only at a point in time where the format was pretty dead. I know very little about Hikaru Nakamura, but it sounds like Hikaru is a much greater chess player than Doug is a poker player. Which is fine, I guess the similarities lie elsewhere.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- garbagetime 5y agoYou think heads-up NLHE found its peak popularity after Black Friday? As for why it's obscure - that's a separate point. Heads-up poker, as a format, was obscure at its peak as it was when Doug Polk was at his, and as it is now. Poker is almost always played at a table with at least six seats, most often more. Heads-up is just tiny in comparison. I just opened up my PokerStars client. Out of the many thousands of players currently playing, approximately 15 are playing heads-up cash games. And only two are playing heads-up cash games for medium or high stakes.
- jstx1 5y agoIt's a nice parallel - I like that it could be both a compliment and an insult.
- buzzy_hacker 5y agoIn fact, here is an interview of Hikaru from Doug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npyFtH2odaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npyFtH2odaM