Published on July 26th 2007 5:22 pm EST

Jerry Yang at the WSOP 2010 - Photo re-postedThere is no mistaking it; online poker rooms derive a huge percentage of their new players from televised poker tournaments, especially the World Series of Poker on ESPN. Think of the legions of new players that signed up after Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem all won the main event. For their own individual reasons, each person brought a new contingent of poker players into the fold.

Last week, we speculated that Jerry Wang would be an absolute nightmare for the major online poker rooms in terms of bringing in new players. We didn't realize just how bad of a nightmare it would in fact be. It's official. Jerry Wang is going to be worse than Jamie Gold in terms of bringing in new players into sites such as Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars, if that is even possible.

So not only is Jerry Wang an older father of six who is devoutly religious (I mean, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but it's not targeting the right demographic for poker rooms), but he will not come across well at the final table when it is televised, and his behavior will make people roll their eyes and turn off their sets. The worst news is yet to come though..

Wang has recently stated in an interview that he doesn't play online poker because he has heard horror stories about how "people get addicted and play four screens at once." Not exactly the guy you want hawking your poker room. I am getting the strong feeling that Yang is the type of player that you will never hear from again; he is more interested in his family than promoting poker rooms and playing at poker tournaments.

Compare that to someone like Hevad "Rain" Khan, whom the online poker rooms were quietly cheering for to win. A young guy, a true grinder, a lot of personality. He would have been the perfect guy to bring in some new blood into online poker. You can win the main event too if you grind away at eight different tables at once.

If we are judging based on character and morals, Wang may be the best champion of all time. But in terms of drawing power, he will end up being a bigger bust than Jamie Gold.


Photo: GreasieWheels.com

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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker

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