Old Style or New Style

[Sark79]

I was talking with the old boy that stays along the street from me today. The subject of snooker came up, he tried to argue with me that players from the past ( Ray Reardon, John Spencer,ect) could outplay a modern player as the modern players were just flash upstarts " those young lads are just show offs, hitting in big breaks with their dyed hair and swagger around the table...the game is  not as good as it once was, its just about money and showing off now". I tried to explain from a younger persons viewpoint that the game had changed with time, and the modern day guys approached the game differently from those in the past. This got me thinking, have poker players improved from those in the past. With the advantage that a beginner like myself has with easy to access information provided by such sources as the internet, books, excellent forums( Blonde being the top of the tree), DVD's and other such examples.  Does this mean a modern day player could outplay a player from the past. I know people with automatically think of older pro's such as T.J Cloutier and  Doyle Brunson who are still able to mix it with the best, but are these the exception. If a pro from today was able to play a player from 1940's Texas( Traditional Texas Road Gambler) would he beat him. Both would have seen many poker situations, but the modern day player would have the advantage of seeing thousands of hands by playing for hours online in a short period of time. The more I read about poker, the more I realise I still have to learn. I was reading the players tips section of the FULLTILT website today and found a fantastic article by Erick Lindgren on multi-tabling, this was just one of about 50 other articles on that site. If you stop and think about all the other sites available to a player now, this is something a player from the past couldn't utalise. What do you think?

[Scottish Dave]

a very interesting topic TBH, unfortunately tho, i dont know enough about the older players, (texas Dolly and the likes aside that is) to comment on this, how ever im sure Tikay might be able to assist?

[AdamM]

the old boys off poker that haven't adapted and dont play a decent modern game, we probably haven't heard of because they would have gone broke years ago. Doyle, Cloutier, Harrington, etc play a different game than they did 10 years ago.

As for the snooker thing, your blue rinse buddy is a mental. Ronnie O'Sullivan could beat Ray Reardon or john Spenser left handed with a broom stick and give them a 20 point head start each frame. the sport jumped in standard three times, Davis - Hendry - the new 'young flashy players' you mention.

[Sark79]

Yea I agree. I think even a top 30 player from today could crush the number one player from the 70's at snooker.

[Indestructable]

I think this argument applies to a lot of sports and games, especially comparing past soccer stars to the modern era.
With most comparisons I think improvements have been made and would prefer to watch soccer now compared to the past. However, snooker is an exception as I used to love watching the characters like Alex Higgins, Eddie Charlton, Ray Reardon and Dennis Taylor. The current lot are on the whole pretty bland, although very god at the game.
With Poker I believe that this is different as clearly Ronnie O'Sullivan would normally beat Dennis Taylor. However past poker greats can and still do beat the current poker pros.