The Sunglasses War Is On
Daniel Negreanu in his poker blog had said that players who wear sunglasses are cheaters. Now Roy Winston has taken Negreanu head on in his own poker blog at CardPlayer. Before you ask “Winston who??” here is a brief bio of the Full Tilt poker pro. He has won the 2007 WPT Borgata Poker Open, the 2007 Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic and the 2008 Doyle Brunson Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic. His $2.5 million tournaments earnings are no match for Negreanu’s $11.7 million, but then a person’s reasonableness is not in proportion to his poker winnings.
Winston’s poker blog is called “Sunglasses and Poker—-Really?” The funniest part of the blog is his reference to Negreanu as “a certain well-known player/blogger who compared wearing sunglasses to cheating”. But on a more serious front he countered every argument that Negreanu made. Negreanu had said that a majority of the world’s top players do not wear sun glasses. Winston promptly named Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer and or John Phan, “all of who wear sunglasses and all of who have honor beyond reproach.” But then three do not constitute a majority and Negreanu may even argue that these three are not top players.
Winston pointed out the impracticality of Negreanu’s suggestion. He said many players wear prescription glasses which may be tinted. There are different levels of tinting and it would be impossible to police which is acceptable and which is not. One can imagine the tournament director moving from table to table with some kind of meter in his hand and saying “Yours are okay” or “You’ve got to take those off” depending on his meter reading. Winston writes, “So before you open a can of worms you really need to think about the ramifications.”
Winston also refuted Negreanu’s argument that sunglasses are bad for televised poker by citing the furor created by Raymer’s funky sunglasses in the 2004 WSOP Main Event, which Raymer won. Sunglasses like those are now on sale on the Internet, but their adverts may actually work in Negreanu’s favor. The advert says, “Don’t let ‘em see you sweat, and maybe you can make a cool 5 million too. Hey, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer did. Never let ‘em see your eyes, and keep ‘em guessing.”
