One of my buddies playing in the main event was at the table with one of the Hinkle’s and it was hilarious listening to him berate them.  In case you missed Tuesday nights airing of the WSOP Grant Hinkle wins, with his mom and brother in tow (his brother later goes on to win a WSOP bracelet).  The Hinkle’s are like Care Bears, Canadians or the color violet, you are not supposed to hate them, yet you do! When Chris Moneymaker played the bumbling idiot it was cool because a lot of people saw themselves in him and that brought a lot of people into poker.  The Hinkle’s are one of this years big stories, and by all account Blair Hinkle is a prolific pokerer.  Grant comes off as a lucksack (whether rightly or wrongly the TV does not lie, wink wink), it does not matter that he stole a lot of blinds or played one or two hands masterfully, in 3 or 4 of the biggest hands he got really lucky.  Which used to play well because people thought “hey, I can play like that guy and get lucky and win a million dollars”, forget the fact that you have to be willing to make a silly play with 10 4 which most people are not willing to do.  But that was so 2004, this is 2008, even though Chris Moneymaker qualified on a $50 satellite many people have chased that same dream only to be slapped in the face with a big can of variance. 

None of this is my reality, poker has treated me well but I do not look at Grant Hinkle and think, “maybe this will be the thing that brings more people from middle America to poker”.  If you need proof that packaging a similar idea is a bad move does anyone remember New Coke ?

On a side note, while some of us may indeed like the Hinkle’s (or canadians for that matter) I think we can all agree on 2 points:

1.  Theo Tran is a douche

2.  Mike Ngo’s antics would only work at about $1-$2 typically, which further points to Theo Tran being a douche since he could not see through that.

3.  When celebrity poker players are sweating you they are not your friends.  They are owed money.  Though I thought everyone knew this at this point.  Someone tell Norman Chad.