https://www.pokercentral.com/article...shes-out-400k/
say what you want about him, he really kept up with the game and his results prove it.
truly great poker player.
https://www.pokercentral.com/article...shes-out-400k/
say what you want about him, he really kept up with the game and his results prove it.
truly great poker player.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
Did he have a roll of toilet paper on the little table beside him?
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He has a defensive playstyle which is hard to counter. This style can only work if you also have a really good feel for what people are likely holding (which he does).
He also benefits from his reputation. People really want to tell a story of beating Phil Hellmuth, so he basically sits back and lets them shoot off to him. He also benefits from the fact that he's one of the most famous poker pros, so people will get nervous when playing against him.
His bad behavior at the table isn't an act, though. He gets legitimately frustrated when he plays his defensive style, is way ahead and his opponent is hanging themselves, and then they get lucky and rewarded for putting most of their money in bad. His narcissistic personality has a hard time coming to grips with the fact that bad plays and bad players will sometimes get lucky. His behavior at the WSOP seems to have gotten worse over the years, presumably because he now knows he can act this way and face zero consequence. He has tremendous influence at the WSOP, as evidenced by his ability to turn Jared Bleznick's lifetime ban into a warning within 48 hours.
As I've mentioned before, Phil has a weird quirk where he behaves badly, yet doesn't want people to hate him (or at least not people who are even semi-known in poker).
Hellmuth is aware that I'm not a super prominent name in poker (while he is one), but he's also aware that I'm not an unknown. On more than one occasion, he has checked to make sure that I didn't hate him. The last time was in 2018, after we had talked trash back and forth at the table. I started the trash talk, but only after Hellmuth had been abusive to two other players at the table. With minutes left in the day, Hellmuth said quietly to me something along the lines of, "You know how I am at the table. You know I don't really mean anything bad by it, right?" He really wanted my acknowledgement that he wasn't actually a bad guy.
Very strange dude.
One thing I'll say for him is that there has never been a story about him cheating on his wife, even when he spends weeks or months away from her. From all accounts, he's faithful to her, which is more than can be said for a lot of other prominent poker pros on the road.
Some greater or lesser variant of that personality type feels kind of common. I obviously don’t know him, but for whatever reason, despite his idiocy at the tables, he’s likable to me personally
If I had to leave an abandoned baby on the doorstep of a random poker player, with Sexton now being dead, he’s certainly after Seidel and a few others off the top of my head, but probably in the top 10% of good choices that might raise a somewhat normal human, with his wife’s help. I tend to think in those terms when I think of how big a scumbag someone is.
Phil Hellmuth Jr is the Donald Trump of Poker.
Poker's biggest crybaby and Dan Druff's favorite poker pro.
He outlasted Annie Duke who quit poker in 2012.
Phil has most narcissistic ego than any poker pro in history.
really interesting post.
my gut read has always been that indulging his 'enfant terrible' is essential to his poker success, and he does so willfully and knowing full well how toxic it is, but as a human is totally concerned with the fallout.
like he knows its not acceptable behavior but also recognizes that his edge is reliant on it.
i wonder if thats true, it could be. but it could also be bullshit. lots of big name artists/musicians/etc refused to stop indulging their demons because they felt they would lose their edge and so far, there doesnt seem to be a consensus on whether or not thats bullshit.
but yeah say what one wants about hellmuth's quirks, its absolutely fucking astounding how he hard he bangs at poker, not just at the table but as a business/brand/lifestyle.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
Since the beginning of the poker boom in 2003, a lot of young players have said that Phil doesn't know how to play. A lot of those young players from the early 2000s eventually went busto or they got burned out and now they are gone from poker forever. As time goes on, more new young players have come along to say Phil is bad. But Phil keeps winning.
Phil is one of the most fun players to watch on TV. I am happy he beat Antonio heads-up, 3 out of 3 times. Antonio can no longer taunt Phil at games by saying let's play heads-up any time (as if Phil losing was a foregone conclusion). I almost want to pay for PokerGo just to see Antonio react to losing 3 times in a row.
two things have become clear in the last 20 years:
1) phil hellmuth is incredibly gifted at poker, to the extent that he's been able to tweak his thesis to evolve with game. he had kind of a slump iirc maybe shortly before black friday...? memory fuzzy.. but he was one of the first to get back in the saddle and brush off all that bullshit and the results started to amp up fast. like he might be playing his finest games these days.
2) very few of the people who ever ended up on a 'pokers biggest names' list stayed there.
BONUS THING
bill filmaff is god.
yes, still.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
Doubt it's doing too much to his edge, but it does a fuckton to business/brand side of things.
Also mostly not an act since he has been the same before he was worth anything and there weren't any cameras around. He has always externalized "tilt" without any ill will. And you could say it does a bit for his edge/game since internally it calms him down. It's somewhat a reverse to how most people handle tilt.
all i know is he's hanging ten on his pathos and i cant knock the hustle.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
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