What If Tuan Lam had won the WSOP 2007?
Apparently when Hachem won it was really good for poker down under. If Tuan Lam* had won do you think it would have affected poker in Canada noticeably? The WSOP is an event that almost entirely ignores the runner up.
Tuan Lam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tuan Lam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comments
Really? Sam Farha , David Williams, Paul Wasicka, Dewey Tomko, TJ Cloutier?
A bunch of no name second place finishers.
Moneymaker's was more by happenstance of having the right name at the right event at the right time under the right coverage. He is otherwise a fairly uncharismatic guy.
Hachem, while kind of a jerk, does have public charisma and really pushed the Aussie thing a lot.
Yang had no real charisma, and the only thing he is really remembered for is having religion on his side as he won as more of an amusing side story.
As someone brought up, some of the runners ups and final table people who had some form of charisma (some good, some bad) have gotten plenty of attention.
I think Tuan Lam winning would have gotten a bit more coverage, but it would not make much of a difference at all in terms of the Canadian poker scene.
Moneymaker was famous because as Monteroy said, it was happenstance. He was the first Poker Star sattelite winner. Big news and poker exploded.
Raymor was the second and all eyes were on the WSOP to see if it would happen again.
Hachem has a personality and WPT win to help him out.
Gold was a jerk off and had a law suit against him.
And now Yang. Who is that again? The luster of winning the Main Event can be lost quickly if you don't use it. I could sit next to this guy at a table and not have a clue who he is. He should have got a publicist.
If Lam won? Who knows? It would depend on how he got himself out in the public. It is a hard question to answer it would all depend on Lam's ability to work a crowd.
I think that's the key statement. If any second place finisher had an ounce of intuition on how to market themselves, every one of them would be very recognizable today. Look at BigChris's list again, each of them is capitalizing on their fame in some way or other. TJ writes books and exploits his CFL whenever he can. Sammy took his second place finish against Moneymaker and is using it to his advantage. You see him at more invitationals than Moneymaker these days, because he MADE it work for him.
Moneymaker is almost unheard of lately. Raymer writes from mags and is heavily involved in the WSOP Academy. Even Jamie Gold is trying to capitalize on his fame by being focused on organizing charity poker events. They're doing what they can to STAY in the limelight.
Its been said in other threads, but Chorny and Watts should do whatever they can to do the same thing and get their names and faces out there more and stay on top of the 'fan favourite' lists. I'm sure neither want's to be known as one hit wonders, and staying popular with the fans is a great way to keep that alive.