Money sport star Alan Keating has offended half of the poker group by saying that event poker isn’t deserving of the title, describing it as checkers versus chess.
Within the newest episode of NO LIMIT, a poker documentary produced by the World Sequence of Poker across the 2024 WSOP Paradise), the high-stakes cash-game reg provided a blunt evaluation of event poker that has reignited a long-standing debate inside the poker group.
Keating couldn’t have been any simple when he stated:
“Tournaments are extra like checkers to me… I don’t suppose event poker is essentially the most pure type of poker. Wait…I did simply sugarcoat it.
“I don’t suppose event poker is poker. It’s horrible, it’s a lottery. For me, poker at its purest is enjoying for irresponsible sums of cash.”
So, is he proper? Properly, event gamers have historically been regarded down on as a poor relation to their money sport friends.
Money video games are extra refined than tournaments was the mantra we used to listen to on a regular basis. However lately that opinion has advanced.
The reasoning behind this declare that event technique is extra crude than deepstacked money video games is right down to the ever shrinking stacks eradicating a lot of the liberty to implement technique.
Merely put, push/fold poker isn’t that refined and in comparison with a 250 massive blind deep conflict in a three-bet pot it’s a laughable sport.
Keating stated the deeper stacks pressure troublesome selections over a number of streets permitting for maximal exploitation of opponents, however this doesn’t inform the entire story and other people at the moment are queuing up on social media to clarify why event gamers deserve each little bit of respect they get.
Don’t make me chuckle bro… comical pic.twitter.com/Rq39xnkHfs
— NICKY P 🧙👨🍳 (@Nick_Palma1010) November 18, 2025
Nicky P Hearth Pictures at Alan Keating
WSOP bracelet winner and event professional Nicholas “Nicky P” Palma responded sharply on X shortly after the episode aired:
“Tournaments, it’s important to play the most effective to be the most effective and you’ll’t desk choose. The money video games he performs, a participant with even half a mind isn’t allowed to play as a result of the individuals are all whales.
“This man can solely beat a whale. Anybody with half respectable poker data destroys this man in poker. He’d be residing on the road if he wanted to win cash in poker and play versus good gamers.
“He will get in video games you’ll be able to’t even play as a result of he’s such a fish. It’s comical listening to a clown like this on a poker documentary about tournaments discuss like this.”
Powerful-talking Palma’s argument is that large-field tournaments pressure contributors to navigate a various vary of expert opponents with out the power to pick out tables or reload indefinitely.
He says these situations supply a extra rigorous check of total poker potential than many personal or streamed high-stakes money video games, which frequently characteristic leisure gamers with substantial monetary sources however restricted technical proficiency.
Match specialists will let you know that adapting to quickly altering stack depths, ICM issues, payout construction, and a discipline that features robust gamers represents a broader and infrequently extra demanding talent set.
Each codecs have produced simple elite expertise, and the trendy greats have demonstrated proficiency in every.
Nonetheless, Keating’s feedback which have been delivered from the angle of a deep-pocketed leisure participant and Palma’s pointed rebuttal from a event grinder underscore the differing environments that present the 2 disciplines to be equally deserving of respect.
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