Best online poker games on Launchpoker.com

  In 2002, Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings not only won an Olympic Gold medal (with the Canadian Olympic hockey team) while playing on a knee so banged up it took experimental surgery to fix it, but he also led the Wings to a Stanley Cup Championship. Despite a knee that was malfunctioning to the point where he could not stand without using his stick like cane, he still came in second in playoff scoring and survived dozens of opposing players who took runs at his injured knee in an effort to get him off the ice. St. Louis Blues captain, Chris Pronger, was one of those players who tried to take out Yzerman out with a nasty check, and found himself out for the season when Mr. Yzerman countered with a hit of his own.



  Add to this thousands of miles in travel every week, and you would have something that anybody would call a fatiguing grind. Steve never complained or referenced how much doing all this while injured was taking out of him, he simply went forward and when asked about it, just expressed the hope that his post-surgery recovery wouldn't take that long.



  We reference that bit above to contrast Steve Yzerman's playoff experience with the one that Phil Hellmuth had during the 2008 World Series of Poker. On his own blog Phil writes that "It took everything that I have to make it through this day. I'm at the peak of my powers, and hoping, praying that I can keep it up despite extreme fatigue. I would pay $25,000 for a great night of sleep!!!"



  Those of us who not only play poker, but also play a real sport as well at a high level know that while poker can be intense, it doesn't compare to three hours of skating and checking, or playing both ways during the sort of football game where face masking is just another way of saying hello. Apparently Mr. Hellmuth has never played any other sport at a level above a neighborhood league.



  While we can admire the Poker Brat's accomplishments, that are outstanding beyond any doubt, it is comments like this that make people giggle when poker is referred to as a sport. Even golf gained some legitimacy among athletic competitors when Tiger Woods recently played with the sort of knee injury that would have apparently had Mr. Hellmuth curled up in the fetal position.



  If a sport that generally involves sitting and thinking is all it takes to exhaust him, Hellmuth would never make it in the real working world where sitting in a cubicle for ten hours a day while using your brain is part of the job description.