Chino Rheem - the pro defender(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
Do pros really need defending? Why did David “Chino” Rheem feel compelled to take the weight of all poker pro-dom on to his shoulders, especially when more than half the players at the final table were pros?
In 2003 Chris Moneymaker -- as you likely know -- won the World Series of Poker main event, having got to Las Vegas on a $40 satellite from PokerStars online poker room. This was the catalyst of the poker boom, the signal flare that told the world that an amature poker player has a shot at glory and riches. Here some five years later, aiming for a prize five times that Moneymaker won, is Chino Rheem, pro poker player, looking to “redeem” pros in the eyes of the world.
The thing about it is, he really didn’t need to.
Last year in the WSOP plenty of newcomers won bracelets, but that didn’t mean they were all amateurs. Many of them were pros from other countries, or newly minted pros online. This year the WSOP was labeled the “year of the pro” because many long time, old school pros were winning bracelets, but really that was a marketing buzz, designed to inject drama into the quest for WSOP gold -- with Chino’s comments, it looked like it worked.
Amateurs ARE winning more than ever, but they don’t pose long-term threats to the pros; mostly because if the amateurs stick around and keep winning, they BECOME pros.
But all of that aside, pros are still winning, and winning more and more. Part of this is because they’ve had a few years to learn how to handle the new styles of the amateurs, and done what makes them pros in the first place -- adapted, adjusted, and learned how to beat their opponents.
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