This is such a hard question to answer! So many of the pros are great in different ways. Most have their weaknesses too. I can say this for sure: Doyle Brunson is most definitely NOT the world's best Hold'em player, not by far. Maybe he was in the '60s, when the game was different, but it's a new world, and with the addition of all the young internet players to tournaments and high stakes cash games, he really can't stand up to his legacy. Watching him play doesn't do much for me, and I view him as mediocre at best. Yes, some still view him as the greatest of all time, but times have changed, and I don't think he has kept up.

My choice for the best Texas Hold'em player would have to be Tom "Durrrr" Dwan. Out of all the pros today, he is the one that I've seen pull off the best bluffs, get the most money out of his opponents when he's got the nuts, and he wins. Consistently. He almost always knows what's going on in a hand, if not exactly the cards the other players are holding, and, more importantly, he knows what to do after he figures a hand out. Sometimes, as you may have noticed, other great readers like Daniel Negreanu or Allen Cunningham will be able to call out someone's cards, but they'll still play the hand wrong. There's no use in being able to read your opponent if you can't benefit from it. Of course these players don't mess up ALL the time, I'm just saying that it happens. I don't think I've seen Durrrr make a big mistake like this once. Sure, he has made a couple bad calls on High Stakes Poker, but that's when he put the other player on a completely different hand. It's understandable that he would make a bad read once in a while. He IS human, although sometimes it doesn't seem like it. But once he knows what's going on and what you're doing, he will use that against you until he gets all of your money.

I will post a video here of Durrrr making two of the biggest bluffs I've ever seen. The second one makes me want to believe that Phil Ivey is the best in the world, but then I realize what Tom Dwan just pulled off. Durrrr has got to be the best cash player around.

Ok, I can't find the video of this first one anywhere, but here's a photo of what was going on in the hand, and Dwan got both Barry Greenstein and Peter Eastgate off of their hands. Kicker is, he knew that Eastgate had the best hand out of the three of them, even though he was the first and quickest to fold, and Dwan knew that he himself had the worst hand out of the three of them.

http://www.coinflip.com/resources/images/dwan-eg-gr.jpg

If you haven't seen this already, please watch the whole thing. It will blow you away, I assure you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y_FjBNiitw

So, maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong, but I still hold true to my belief that Dwan is the best, at least for the time being. Of course, he hasn't made it incredibly deep in tournaments, but that's because he doesn't play them very often. But, I guess if there were different categories and you would like me to pick who's the best cash player and who's the best tournament player, then I would DEFINITELY choose Dwan for cash, and maybe Mike Matusow for tournaments. In the past few years he has cleaned up his act (used to be a drug addict and was in prison) and has taken a new and positive attitude towards life and poker. He made it really deep in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2008, and plays very consistent tournament poker. By this, I mean that he tends to keep pots small, and he wins the pots he plays.

Well, there you have it! If you want to ask me any additional questions or if I missed anything, let me know! I tend to ramble when it comes to poker, because I love it so much. I may be a little biased in picking Tom Dwan as the best, since he's my personal and professional hero and all, but I think he's really proved himself as such. After watching him play a few hands in High Stakes Poker, I don't think anyone could really refute his presence and even dominance at the poker table.

Great question!

The only way to decide this is to refer to the individuals who have the most inside knowledge. This is the way they've always done it. Did you know that back in the first ever World Series Of Poker, in 1970, the players actually decided who the best poker player was based on votes. The winner was Johnny Moss. He won because his peers knew he was the best and they voted for him.

These days we have many more tournaments and cash games going on, so it's tempting to want to look at public results or TV tape to decide who is truly "the best of the best". But even though we have so many results to look at, the truth is that they don't provide EVEN CLOSE to enough data to determine who the absolute best player really is.

I think the best player is Phil Ivey, and here's why. Every time I've seen a player on TV asked who they respect the most in the game, who the best players are, etc... They ALWAYS say Phil Ivey right away.

Phil has been on the scene for over 15 years. He's risen to the very top of the game and he's stayed there. He plays all of the games extremely well, and he has more respect from his peers than any other player. Even Doyle Brunson has said many times that Phil amazes him. Maybe in the future some of the young guns (like Tom Dwan) may overtake Phil as the number one player. But that day isn't here yet, and Phil Ivey is the best of the best.

Durrr is great because he's dominating No-limit hold'em and Pot limit Omaha cash games online and live. Daniel is great at tournament poker and mixed limit cash games, Doyle is great because he's beat all the games for years and years and has 10 bracelets.

But Phil Ivey is the best player. He is number ! in overall tournament cashes (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/ranking/1). He is among the top players all time in online cash winnings and is generally regarded as the all around best live cash game player in the world by all of the top pros.

Want proof? Watch the play in the video.