How Famous Are The Top Poker Players In The US?

If you asked random people in the US if they knew who Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu or Mike Matusow or Chris Moneymaker etc were in the US what per cent do you think would know them?

I live in the UK, and although there is some poker on tv, outside of poker players, noone would even know these names.

In the US is poker so popular that they are household names that most people would know, to the same level as say the top athletes in sport?

How famous is anyone?

How many of the following names have you ever heard?

Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

They are the names of every human being who has set foot on the moon, excluding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Lightyear. There are 12 in total, but how many of the 'other 10' could you name if your life depended on it?

I think TV plays a big role in fame and recognision.
And since there's been quite some popular TV shows and TV comercials I bet a lot of people recognise some players.

However its probably like sports. Some people are totaly uninterested, and those people probably dont know any player.

Xavier said:

If you asked random people in the US if they knew who Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu or Mike Matusow or Chris Moneymaker etc were in the US what per cent do you think would know them?

I live in the UK, and although there is some poker on tv, outside of poker players, noone would even know these names.

In the US is poker so popular that they are household names that most people would know, to the same level as say the top athletes in sport?

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Nope.

Stu_Ungar said:

How famous is anyone?

How many of the following names have you ever heard?

Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

They are the names of every human being who has set foot on the moon, excluding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Lightyear. There are 12 in total, but how many of the 'other 10' could you name if your life depended on it?

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I hope you were joking, LOL. It's Buzz Aldrin.

Twenty-four of the Apollo program astronauts left Earth’s orbit and flew around the Moon (Apollo 7 and Apollo 9 did not leave low Earth orbit).

It's very dependant on who follows poker as to who would know top poker pros like you mentioned.

Unlike athletes they aren't in the public eye, papers or news for example. Well very few are and even when they are it's not much of a news column..

If poker ever gained the worldwide following like Football,Tennis,F1 etc then of course they would be just as well known. Poker only recently has become more popular so is kind of still "new" in a sense. Football,Tennis,F1 have been on TV and in the newspaper before TV was invented and for as long as TV and newspapers have been around.

If poker ever gets legalized in the U.S I'm quite sure in 20years maybe poker will have the sort of following, probably not as much but be a lot more publicised.

beantownmaniac said:

I hope you were joking, LOL. It's Buzz Aldrin.

Twenty-four of the Apollo program astronauts left Earth’s orbit and flew around the Moon (Apollo 7 and Apollo 9 did not leave low Earth orbit).

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I wondered who would spot it.

i guess if you in the poker commiunty you have to know certin poeple so you dont sound like an idoit when they talk about poker you say (phil ivey who is that is he any good) an did meet poeple playing poker for years and dont know him

In Australia I'd guess maybe a quarter or a third of people would recognise Joe Hachem's name because of the media coverage at the time he won the world series and the TV show he's had since.

I think only poker fans would recognise any of the others. Case in point: a few years ago at the Aussie Millions some media found Phil Ivey at Crown Casino and wanted to do an interview with him - not because he was Phil Ivey, greatest poker player in the world, but because they'd mistaken him for James Blake the tennis player.

OzExorcist said:

In Australia I'd guess maybe a quarter or a third of people would recognise Joe Hachem's name because of the media coverage at the time he won the world series and the TV show he's had since.

I think only poker fans would recognise any of the others. Case in point: a few years ago at the Aussie Millions some media found Phil Ivey at Crown Casino and wanted to do an interview with him - not because he was Phil Ivey, greatest poker player in the world, but because they'd mistaken him for James Blake the tennis player.

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Ha he doesnt even look like james blake.

I would say its like any sport/game, its only the heavily sponsored players whos names stand out.

I would say here in the US it's limited to the poker community, although the community is growing every day. Holdem is quickly becoming the most popular card game ever to be played in the US.

Stu_Ungar said:

I wondered who would spot it.

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I grew up watching the Apollo missions. I remember to this day watching the first step onto the moon. No biggie, I got a good laugh.

OzExorcist said:

In Australia I'd guess maybe a quarter or a third of people would recognise Joe Hachem's name because of the media coverage at the time he won the world series and the TV show he's had since.

I think only poker fans would recognise any of the others. Case in point: a few years ago at the Aussie Millions some media found Phil Ivey at Crown Casino and wanted to do an interview with him - not because he was Phil Ivey, greatest poker player in the world, but because they'd mistaken him for James Blake the tennis player.

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Ha, that's funny. I wouldn't recognize some poker pro's, but I know all the famous ones and would recognize them in a heartbeat.

None of my 'RL' friends are serious poker players. I haven't bothered asking them, but I highly doubt any of them would be able to name any professional poker player off the top of their heads. This is in contrast to other sports, where I'm sure even the most pop culture clueless of them would be able to throw out some random brand name athletes (e.g. "Michael Jordan", "Tiger Woods"). I think it's safe to say that in the US, the players most well-known in the poker world enjoy nowhere near the same level of public recognition as athletes in other (popular) sports.

OzExorcist said:

I think only poker fans would recognise any of the others. Case in point: a few years ago at the Aussie Millions some media found Phil Ivey at Crown Casino and wanted to do an interview with him - not because he was Phil Ivey, greatest poker player in the world, but because they'd mistaken him for James Blake the tennis player.

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LOL, I can see Tiger Woods maybe but....

Maybe being a woman who plays poker has its benefits when it comes to this topic. Though virtually none of my RL women friends play poker, they are all familiar with Annie Duke because of her appearance on The Apprentice, as well as Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle on Amazing Race.

it depend if you really love poker and how