Erik Seidel, a pro who learned the game in the 1980s, told me that if players like Koon traveled back in time just 15 years with today’s knowledge, they would crush the best players of that era. “I think also that all the people in the game would think that they were fish,” Seidel said, using the poker argot for bad players, “There are a lot of really strange plays now that these guys are making that are effective — but if people saw them back in the day, I think that they’d be invited into the game every night.”