During the 2006 WSOP, I wrote, I've been around a lot of celebrities in my life -- hell, I was even one of them a long time ago -- and it's rare to see someone handle himself with the grace, poise, kindness and generosity that Greg [Raymer] has. There are a lot of very young self-professed professional players here, many of them in their early twenties, and with rare exception they are arrogant, immature, entitled, and entirely without honor or respect for the history of the game. It was so refreshing to walk with Greg through a writhing mass of his fans, and see him treat every single one of them with kindness and respect. Some of these "professionals" would be well-served to take a break from "investing" in Dolce & Gabbana and listen to him.If you watched ESPN's WSOP broadcast last night, you got to see one of these arrogant, immature players in one Eric Molina, who at all of 21 years old thought he was cock of the walk, when he was clearly cock of nothing.
Change100: "In 21-year old Molina, we have a new poster boy for immature, overconfident, know-it-all internet poker donkeys. You know that asshole who has such a lack of self-esteem that he finds the need to berate your every play in a $20 SNG? Molina is that asshole come to life. It was just agonizing to watch this punk knock off player after player after player, berating each one for their moves."
Indeed. You can say whatever you want about Varkonyi, Moneymaker, or any of the non-professionals who have gotten very lucky and come out of nowhere to find big money in the Main Event, but none of them have ever displayed the crass immaturity and arrogance that I saw everywhere in young players this year.
Change has some other very choice words for Molina and other players at Pokerblog, in the first part of a series called "Grading the WSOP's Cast of Characters" Take a look, and join me as I wait breathlessly for the next installment.
1. I dont think this guy is the arrogant person he makes himself out to be, sure he is on camera, and even when he is sitting in time out. While I watched WSOP and the mean spirit that Eric played with, it didnt seem as bad as everyone else made it seem. It was his style of playing, it was how he won big pots. He was able to effectively get under everyone's skin. Sure, this isn't a very humble way of playing No Limit, but then again, what is the true way of playing? Whether your strategy involves standing up to sing and dance when you go all in, or wearing glasses to shield your poker eyes, Molina has his own strategy as well. Had he not played this way and got to people, who is to say he would have went so far. You see a mean spirited winner, I see a strategist. After all, he did call Gold's bluff prior to being penalized for saying the F word.
Posted at 12:43AM on Sep 19th 2006 by robert