Poker Quotes from the W.S.O.P. champions Part One: 2000 - 2009

Poker Quotes from the W.S.O.P. champions

Part One: 2000 - 2009

To become a World Series Of Poker champion is one thing but what have these players go to say about the great game of poker? In the first of a series of ongoing posts that pool the collected thoughts of WSOP champions we start with the most recent honour roll ...

2000 Chris Ferguson
"Paying attention is one of the best ways to learn, and a great way to move up the poker food chain."

2001 Carlos Mortensen
"I believe that poker is a people game played with cards, not just a card game played by people, I think that all players have limits, or situations where they become uneasy, and that is when I put them to the test."

2002 Robert Varkonyi
"I was totally focused, played nearly perfect poker, and caught a few lucky breaks. I played very gutsy and with no fear. But today it's different; when I won it we were only 631 entrants. Now you need even more luck and also more endurance."

2003 Chris Moneymaker    
"I am the poster child for online poker. Amateurs and people who never even played the game watched me on television and figured, 'Hey, I can do that.' And they're right."

2004 Greg Raymer
"Taking freedom away is not what America is all about. Poker is an intrinsic part of America’s soul. Poker is an American game. Poker was a vital part of the American frontier. I love America. And I love to play poker. It is my version of the American dream. I have a simple message to Congress. Keep your hands off of my poker hand."

2005 Joe Hachem
"I just thought I'd be world champion, get a nice endorsement and go back to my normal life. Bullshit, there's nothing normal about my life these days!"

2006 Jamie Gold
"Poker is as much an internal game as it is external competition, and like most sports, it takes more practice and knowing yourself than it does actually playing the game in a professional environment."

2007 Jerry Yang
"As a father of six, you don't have a lot of money to play poker, So I played whenever I have a little chance here and there, and so far I have been successful."

2008 Peter Eastgate
"I guess I haven't really realized how big this is. It will come in the next weeks or the next days. I will become very emotional at some point."

2009 Joe Cada
"I have really put a lot into this. I have been playing poker for some time, and to come here and win it in my very first year - I feel very fortunate."

Still to come on the list of quotable WSOP champs in their own words are Phil Hellmuth, Stuey Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson, Bobby Baldwin,Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Huck Seed, Noel Furliong, amongst others.

Compiled by Colin M Jarman 
Editor of THE QUOTABLE POKER PLAYER 
For more free online poker quotations go to: http://www.quotablepokerplayer.com/