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One In A Billion


2007-09-19 09:06:11
By: Gene Bromberg

In an article that ran in, of all places, Agence France-Presse, Phil Hellmuth said that almost anybody can become poker's next World Champion. And he's serious when he says "anybody"--by Phil's estimate, "five of the six billion people on Earth could make it if they put their minds to it".

Five billion potential World Champions? That's a lot of...potential World Champions. Now, I don't know five billion people (heck, I only invited 130 to my wedding) but as I go through my mental Rolodex of People I Know and People I Have Known, I don't see a whole lot of could-be poker superstars. And when I start running the demographics through my head and consider how many people in the world don't play poker (China springs to mind, and those who have live in places where a more fundamental approach to religion holds sway) I think that five billion number might be on the high side.

But what about those billion poor souls who Phil thinks have NO chance to win the title, no matter how many times they read Play Poker Like The Pros? What qualities are they lacking that would prevent them from playing top-flight poker. And, more importantly--why do so many of these hopeless people keep ending up at poker tables where Phil Hellmuth is playing? Players who, as Phil once memorably said, can't even SPELL poker? Five billion champions walking the Earth, and yet it's the billion without a clue who constantly bedevil the 11-time bracelet holder. This, I think, it one of the great paradoxes in poker. One that may never be explained.


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