PokerOrg recently ran a thread on X/Twitter about Chip Reese. If you don't know about Chip Reese, look him up. One guy who didn't have to look him up is Daniel Negreanu, who created his own poll on X/Twitter, asking who is the current GOAT.
Setting aside the semantic problem that GOAT technically stands for "Greatest Of All Time," who is the GOAT of the post-Chip-Reese era? As Daniel noted, it's really not fair to compare players across generations, since the tools available to the 2025 player would be unimaginable science fiction to, for instance, Chip Reese. But if we consider modern era players, who is the GOAT? Possible considerations:
- Daniel Negreanu
- Erik Seidel
- Ike Haxton
- Jason Koon
- Michael Mizrachi
- Phil Hellmuth
- Phil Ivey
- Steve Chidwick
You also have to decide what are the metrics for GOATdom. Is dominating one form of poker sufficient? What if you're a tournament superstar, but are heartily welcomed into any cash game in town? Can you be the GOAT if you only dominate one narrow corner of the game (Reese was famously excellent at every version and format of poker that anybody could think of)? Does longevity count (thus Seidel's entry)?
One final tantalizing thought: What if the GOAT is anonymous? What if there is somebody out there, destroying (presumably private cash) games, but keeping their profile low, exactly so they can continue to ply their trade. If they were known to be the crusher that they are, they'd have difficulty getting a seat in a game. But that's moot here – let's talk about the ones we know.
Give us your opinion on who is the goat of the post-Chip Reese era. For context, Chip passed away at the end of 2007. Who is his successor?
