Negreanu Weighs In On Hachem Debate

This week, a short interview with WSOP 2005 Main Event champion Joe Hachem stirred up the poker community. As usual, Daniel Negreanu could not help but contribute to the debate.

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Earlier this week, Bluff published a short interview with Joe Hachem, recorded during the Aussie Millions. The Australian won the WSOP 2005 Main Event for $7,500,000 and has booked quite a number of impressive results ever since, including a victory in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2006 for $2,207,575 and a 3rd finish in the Aussie Millions 2012 $100,000 Challenge for $339,726. His lifetime live tournament winnings total at $11,828,080.

47-year-old Hachem is the only Australian world champion to date and is a true ambassador of the game. However, in the interview he expresses his dissatisfaction with the current state of poker and says it is dying for various reasons, including recent young champions not living up to the task of representing poker, the game no longer being fun for recreational players and so on.

It goes without saying that his opinion stirred up the community and a lot of members contributed to the discussion on the online forums. Most recently, Daniel Negreanu published his latest video entry and expressed his views on the matter: while he mostly agrees with Hachem, he begs to differ on some cardinal questions. For example, he does not share the Australian’s view of the world champions’ obligation to be ambassadors of the game, highlighting Greg Merson, an excellent player but not the most appropriate person for the position.

KidPoker adds that coverage of live events are indeed far too professional and are therefore unable to attract new players to the game. Outsiders are more interested in the people at the tables, their stories and the jokes going around, instead of the detailed analyses of hands. The golden age of poker is over, he added, but the game needs to be fun and attractive to amateur players, next to the professionals.