Phil Hellmuth poker brat
So I was watching High Stakes Poker on GSN.
The game starts with two seats open I think and they start to deal the hands. About five minutes in – late as usual – in walks in none other then Phil Helmuth.
The reaction from the others at the table was classic. They looked like a table of kids on Christmas morning. It was really funny. I think Daniel Negreanu started to drool on the felt. Then they cut to some individual interview shots and Daniel Negreanu continued to bash Hellmuth calling him a “yum yum” and that Hellmuth is what they consider a “TV Poker Pro” meaning they only play when on TV.
He basically said that Phil is welcome at any table he is ever playing at. It’s like Negreanu thinks he can recover the 700k he is stuck through Phil alone.
It was pretty surprising – especially from Negreanu – since he usually acts as a poker ambassador. To hear him carry on about Hellmuth and to keep bashing him was, refreshing. I like when people dislike each other and I like rivalries. This is a big reason why I love when the likes of Helmuth, Sheikhan, and Matusow are at the tables.
You know it wont be the love-fest that can happen otherwise. I hate when people are hugging before the flop wishing each other good luck on a hand that’s worth millions of dollars. Get real. While I don’t play vicious poker, I live to compete and that stuff comes across as phony to me.
So anyway after we hear the rest of the tables thoughts on Hellmuth, we get back to the action. What does Phil do? He proceeds to donk off his first buy-in in probably 5 hands (if even that many – sorry I erased it from my TIVO). Some might say he didn’t play that bad but I think he did.
Sure maybe a hand or two he just got buzz-sawed, but it’s like he sat down on tilt. Playing really odd hands in really odd ways. I would say it was about five minutes before Phil was launching his monologues about how great he is and how these players just don’t understand how great he is.
It was funny at one moment Sheikhan made a comment at Phil’s expense after he had blown through his first buying of 10 dimes, and Hellmuth came right back at Sheikhan basically asking what he had done in the poker world. And for the first time, Sheikhan actually had nothing to say.
Maybe he knows how to play video poker online, but Sheikhan is certainly nowhere near Phil Hellmuth as far as live poker is concerned. Given that as of today he has 9 WSOP cashes and zero bracelets, while Phil Hellmuth has 79 cashes and 11 WSOP Gold Bracelets including the main event. But did Phil have to point this out, not sure if this is of good taste.
It was funny – and it was good TV. Let’s hope they play more of it.
Tags: Daniel Negreanu, High Stakes Poker, Kid Poker, Mike Matusow, odd hands, Phil Hellmuth, poker brat, poker tilt, TV poker, WSOP bracelets