Tony G rants on NBC Poker Championship selection process

Tony G is never one to shy away from expressing exactly what is on his mind, and he did just that when he griped about being snubbed by the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship selection committee for the fourth time in a row. But Tony isn’t the only player who might be crying foul, so I thought I would take a look at some of the other players who may have a case to be made.

My Top Five snubs:

Isaac Haxton - Haxton is a consistent tournament performer and an online poker legend. His deep runs in big tournaments as well as his TV cash game appearances on the Big Game and High Stakes Poker have made Haxton a fairly well-known player, and more than deserving of a spot in this field.

Scott Seiver - Seiver is one of the top up-and-coming players in poker, having successfully made the transition from online poker or live poker. With his personality, and of course his online poker chops, as well as having won over $2 million in live tournaments this is a very odd snub.

Tony G - Tony may not have the poker resume of the other players on this list, but the one thing he does have is an army of followers, as well as an army of detractors: Which means that people will tune in to see Tony G play poker, whether he is winning or losing!

Carlos Mortensen - Will anyone ever recognize this man’s resume! I can see him being overlooked by the fans who voted for the Tournament of Champions this past year at the WSOP, but really, he is not in the top 64 of industry insiders?

Sam Trickett - Trickett is one of the hottest players in poker, and not only is he tearing up live tournaments, but he is playing in the biggest high-stakes cash-games in the world -and doing quite well to boot. My guess is that if the selection committee could redo one spot it would be adding Sam Trickett to the lineup.

Three more that could have been included:

Chris Moorman - Moorman is a prolific online poker player who has recently started throwing his hat into the live poker tournament scene -most likely due to his inclusion in the Brunson 10. Moorman has so many online poker accolades it would be impossible to list them all.

Justin Smith - ‘Boosted J’ is another young pro who has put up very consistent numbers both online and on the live tournament trail.

Shaun Deeb - Deeb has had little live poker success up to this point in his career, but he is regarded as one of the best online tournament in the history of the game.