[Iceman37]

"What pro would put their entire tournament on the line with just a pair of treys?"

Damned few. Or with half the other cards Moneymaker decided to play in bad situations against good players. Moneymaker is a hack.

I give him full credit for his bluffing abilities, and for his lack of a visible tell when he's in a hand. Beyond that, he's a suckout who plays bad cards into dangerous situations and gets lucky. I don't mind players getting lucky...it's part of the game. Just don't tell me they're great players.

And if you ever have any doubt, watch Chris Moneymaker for an ENTIRE TOURNAMENT. I had the occasion to do just that online shortly after he won the series. He was spanked so badly Child Protective Services had to be called in. And the spanking was at the hands of a rank amateur who DOESN'T have a bracelet and who has never appeared on television.

As far as his other successes, it's like this...give me a few million dollars, a fat endorsement contract, and television cameras in my face every time I turn around and I'm gonna be entering a lot of high profile tournaments, too. Give me even marginally decent cards and I'm going to finish relatively well in them. Give me one or two major suckouts, and I'm making the final table. That's not rocket science, that's just poker. You want someone who's been a true success, look to the likes of Daniel Negreanu...not Chris Moneymaker.

Or how about Gus "the Golden Child" Hansen, who lucked his way into two or three final tables the first year of the WPT playing the absolute crappiest cards anywhere (I mean worse than any free-money player on the internet EVER plays)...what has he done lately?

And as far as why internet players are doing so well, that's just basic math. The VAST majority of tournament entries are being generated by internet poker sites. It's simply the law of averages. Doesn't make them any better, doesn't make them any worse. But you give me the best the internet has to offer and put them up against the likes of Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, or Daniel Negreanu and I promise you the live-game players are going to eat them for lunch more often than not...and they do, every day. You just don't see that action on television. One or two internet hotshots slipping through to the final table, when the field is polluted with them, isn't that impressive.

Neither is Chris Moneymaker.