4 ms·

He was relevant at the top level of the game for a short period of time but only in one fairly obscure format?

• tzs 5y ago
  He 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 ago
    The 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
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      • garbagetime 5y ago
        You 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.