New Guard of Poker Continue to Perform in Live Tournaments

Despite what some of poker’s more seasoned veterans may tell you, the newest generation of poker players are not only learning the game – they are winning some of the biggest live tournaments in the business. The “old school” poker players that have dominated felt tables around the world for decades are being overmatched by players who have only been allowed to enter casinos starting in the 21st century.

Over the last year and a half many young poker players have garnered a serious string of impressive tournament wins. 2007 saw the emergence of players like Jonathan "Fieryjustice" Little, Scott "Bigriskky" Clements, Jared "Wacokidd" Hamby and Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad, amongst others. These players, which many elder players consider no more than toddlers, are beginning to win more tournaments than their forbearers.

So far in 2008, nearly all of the biggest live tournaments have been won by players no older than their mid 20s.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier took down the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure and he is 26 years old. Michael “Timex” McDonald won the EPT Dortmund tournament and he is only 18 years old. Alexander Kostritsyn defeated a competitive field of players and took down the 2008 Aussie Millions at the age of 21. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Justin “Zeejustin” Bonomo continue to make consistent runs at tournament championships only to fall short in the final tables.

At the age of 26, Gavin Griffin has as an EPT title under his belt, a WSOP title and a WPT title to boot. Not to mention the 4.4 million dollars in lifetime cashes that he’s made. Griffin is the only poker player in the history of the game to accomplish this feat.

Let us not forget the young Norwegian sensation Annette Obrestad. Last September Annette won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event the day before her 19th birthday. Not only did she take home a cool $2.01 million, she set the record for the largest single-event payout for a female player in poker history. Prior to the 2007 WSOPE, Obrestad had only cashed out in four other live poker tournaments. Rest assured, the 2007 WSOPE was no fluke and Obrestad will surely win more live tournaments in the future.

Interestingly, despite all of these amazing finished the old guys continue to grumble and moan claiming that the younger players are lucky. Especially in online rooms, the older generation claims that all the whiz kids just use math to win and aren’t actually playing real poker.

Say what they will, the results speak for themselves. The most likely scenario is that these young guns will only continue to dominate poker. If the begrudging veterans are right with their claims that these players don’t know what they’re doing, then they should prepare themselves because as soon as these young superstars truly grasp the finer points of the game there will be no competition for them except for themselves.