I know it's HIM, but seriously?

http://cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14464

Why does CP PAY this guy to write this crap?

[cwsiggy]

Because he now owns a big chunk of Cardplayer!!

[Ianco15]

[ QUOTE ]
Of course, I went crazy. I shouted, “No!” and proceeded to flop myself on an empty adjacent table while staring straight up into space.

[/ QUOTE ]
He talks about this behavior like it is normal.

[Hellmouth]

I thought the hand was over, but when my opponent studied awhile, I realized that he may actually play his hand. Thus, I started acting as weak as I could. I reached down deep and tried to send out a “weak tell” to fool him. My hands nervously caressed my face, and I tried to turn a bit white while thinking about the last big bluff I had made; I fooled myself into thinking I had 4-3 in the hole. I knew that talking would give away the strength of my hand, so I sat there trying to turn white while being as silent as a church mouse and simultaneously imagining that I was bluffing with 4-3 in my hand.


Could someone please send this guy a Caro's book of poker tells?

Greg

[fyodor]

I think we should get a huge sympathy card, all sign it and send it off to him. That had to be the worst bad beat of all time. I'm sure nobody on these boards has ever suffered worse.

[apaugust]

"I fully expected the last card to pair the board, as I believed I deserved to win the pot."

He is an idiot.

[mike4bmp]

[ QUOTE ]
"I fully expected the last card to pair the board, as I believed I deserved to win the pot."

He is an idiot.

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[TaoTe]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"I fully expected the last card to pair the board, as I believed I deserved to win the pot."

He is an idiot.

[/ QUOTE ]
/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

OMFG. He has these things called "personal issues" in which he derives his own self worth from the falling of some cards. If he runs bad enough he, may just end his life.

[rgschackelford]

Howdy all,

Okay, I read all your arguments, and I must say, fellas, you are all going too easy on the guy. I don't know how many of you are regular CP readers, but I recently got a subscription last November (I love this magazine!). Anyway, I can't remember the last time I saw a good article from him, if at all. Hellmuth is a good player, but he doesn't consider luck at all a part of the game. I'd like to introduce him to Mr. Variance!

Most of his articles he writes seem to be less about analysis or the tournament circuit (like Daniel Negreanu's), and more about "I got a bad beat, and you gotta hear this one, because I'm important." The sad thing about it is that this is a good article by Hellmuth standards! Have you seen him lately? He just finished up an 8-part (18 week-long) analysis of his win at the National Heads-Up Finals on NBC. It would be fine, if he talked about analysis of why he did what he did. But he just gives a freakin' narrative! What the hell!? What a self-aggrandizing punk!?

And to make matters even worse, he continues to throw hissy-fits any time he catches anything remotely close to a bad beat (including getting outplayed–remember the ESPN Tournament of Champions?). The next time he throws a hissy-fit during a televised event, someone should just hall off and send five speeding fingers right at his tonsils*. I mean, even at this point John McEnroe is saying "Shut up!" I got a bad beat today. Got all the money in with an overpair to the board on the flop (I had JJ). The other guy calls with an A8, and turns the ace, while a jack was not forthcoming on the river. I was not catching much anything in the line of cards, today, and was upset. But all I did was said in a deflated tone "That's bullcrap." Let off my token "Argh", and congratulated him on his good hand. I did this while everyone complimented the other guy on his great play. (They love to see me lose a hand because I traditionally dominate, and it's nice to see the #1 guy take a fall. Don't believe me? Who wants to see USC get smacked up on Saturday?) Anyway, I got over it and moved on! I know that I'm better than everyone in that particular circle, and I'll win it back (actually, I could also say that I've already won enough so that I was ahead at the moment). [censored] happens, and the guy's a nice guy. He helps me with computer stuff. So getting back on topic, I'd suggest Hellmuth follow the advice of Aristotle, "Quitchabitchin'". That was either Aristotle or a T-shirt I saw at a NASCAR race. Most likely the latter. Well, I'm done with the rant. Peace, out.

Rusty G.

P.S. I'd love to see Hellmuth respond to this one, because I've got an entire bag of "shut the hell up!" with his name all over it. Hey, new ad campaign, "Shut the Hellmuth Up!" /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Swedebubba]

Wow Rusty, you really have an axe to grind with Phil.

How about we arrange a mud wrestling match between the two of you. May the biggest man boobs win!!!

[Hellmouth]

[ QUOTE ]
Howdy all,

Okay, I read all your arguments, and I must say, fellas, you are all going too easy on the guy. I don't know how many of you are regular CP readers, but I recently got a subscription last November (I love this magazine!). Anyway, I can't remember the last time I saw a good article from him, if at all. Hellmuth is a good player, but he doesn't consider luck at all a part of the game. I'd like to introduce him to Mr. Variance!

Most of his articles he writes seem to be less about analysis or the tournament circuit (like Daniel Negreanu's), and more about "I got a bad beat, and you gotta hear this one, because I'm important." The sad thing about it is that this is a good article by Hellmuth standards! Have you seen him lately? He just finished up an 8-part (18 week-long) analysis of his win at the National Heads-Up Finals on NBC. It would be fine, if he talked about analysis of why he did what he did. But he just gives a freakin' narrative! What the hell!? What a self-aggrandizing punk!?

And to make matters even worse, he continues to throw hissy-fits any time he catches anything remotely close to a bad beat (including getting outplayed–remember the ESPN Tournament of Champions?). The next time he throws a hissy-fit during a televised event, someone should just hall off and send five speeding fingers right at his tonsils*. I mean, even at this point John McEnroe is saying "Shut up!" I got a bad beat today. Got all the money in with an overpair to the board on the flop (I had JJ). The other guy calls with an A8, and turns the ace, while a jack was not forthcoming on the river. I was not catching much anything in the line of cards, today, and was upset. But all I did was said in a deflated tone "That's bullcrap." Let off my token "Argh", and congratulated him on his good hand. I did this while everyone complimented the other guy on his great play. (They love to see me lose a hand because I traditionally dominate, and it's nice to see the #1 guy take a fall. Don't believe me? Who wants to see USC get smacked up on Saturday?) Anyway, I got over it and moved on! I know that I'm better than everyone in that particular circle, and I'll win it back (actually, I could also say that I've already won enough so that I was ahead at the moment). [censored] happens, and the guy's a nice guy. He helps me with computer stuff. So getting back on topic, I'd suggest Hellmuth follow the advice of Aristotle, "Quitchabitchin'". That was either Aristotle or a T-shirt I saw at a NASCAR race. Most likely the latter. Well, I'm done with the rant. Peace, out.

Rusty G.

P.S. I'd love to see Hellmuth respond to this one, because I've got an entire bag of "shut the hell up!" with his name all over it. Hey, new ad campaign, "Shut the Hellmuth Up!" /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

What you dont like his "Smooth Call" technique? lol

Greg

[Easy E]

I thought to myself, “How badly did he play this hand?"

Were you asking yourself this question, Bratboy? If he had folded, you would have looked stupid

<font color="blue">First, I wanted to protect my hand from being beat</font>

I always worry about this preflop with KK, myself. It's my primary goal to protect my strongest hands from losing, preflop. /images/graemlins/confused.gif

I can't decide if Phil writes this stuff deliberately, or if he was just damned lucky to get some of the results that he's had.

Keep writing, Phil. It can't do anything but help us.

[Kaeser]

I can't believe he calls this a bad beat. So he makes a huge re-raise to avoid losing pre-flop but then decides to act as weak as possible to induce a call. Then when his opponent buys his act and re-raises he whines when he loses. It's not like he was even a huge favorite pre-flop.

Anybody ever read his book? He talks about one hand where he makes a huge re-raise with pocket aces so that he can, "Send a message that I had AA and avoid getting a bad beat", what kind of professional player talks like that.

[Derek in NYC]

Come on guys, Phil's reasoning here is logical and well-expressed:

"On one hand, smooth-calling entailed merely calling the $15,000 bet in order to disguise the strength of my hand and make it seem much weaker than it was. Then, later on in the hand, I would try to win another $40,000-$120,000 when it appeared I was weak. On the other hand, a reraise before the flop would alert my opponent to the strength of my hand and most likely scare him — causing him to fold before the flop. The benefit of the reraise was that it might cause my opponent to move all in with J-J, Q-Q, A-K, or even worse hands, thus resulting in my being a healthy favorite for a ton of chips."

[gildwulf]

I thought this was a great article! I can't believe you don't appreciate Phil Hellmuth! He is such a great poker player! Wow!

Zach

[benkahuna]

In the ToC, Phil laid down top pair when he was beat heads up a number of times. Annie got hit by the deck. It wasn't bad beats, but it was very unlucky. Yes, he did outdraw an overpair getting all in with it preflop, but the heads up wasn't about him being outplayed, it just looked like it if you didn't think critically about his play.

That said, for a poker pro Phil still is a whiny bitch about bad beats. Especially given how long he's been playing, he needs to grow up. It's sucks losing to bad beats and as I became a better player, I could relate a lot to what happened to him as many more of my losses became due to bad beats. However, I handle it better than he does now which given how many fewer years I've played than him and how much younger I am is very, very sad.

[Easy E]

Did you forget the part where his reasoning included protecting his second-best possible preflop hand from being beaten?

Of course he believes in luck. "If it weren't for luck I'd win all of them". /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
http://cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14464

Why does CP PAY this guy to write this crap?

[/ QUOTE ]

I like reading his articles. Easy read, mildly entertaining and a happy ending. What's not to like?

chez

[KeysrSoze]

This Hellmuff guy should stick to the big cash games where people respect his raises. He's sure to win then.

/end cliche

[rgschackelford]

Hey, I have some pretty nasty man-boobs. The only difference between Phil and I is that my man-boobs were not plastered all over the ESPN broadcast, like his (and let's not forget to mention the bologna tits, either) that also shows him acting all spiritual. Sorry Phil, I'm just not buying it.

Rusty G.

P.S. I think Phil is one of the best tournament players around, in terms of overall skill. And, he would probably be the most dominating presence of any other pro (possible exception of Doyle Brunson) at the table if I were to draw him at my table at a WPT or WSOP event. But he seriously needs to accept that there is a luck factor in poker, and that sometimes lady luck is having an affair with the guy who made a donk play and got it all in with the worst hand. It happens! Deal with it. Pound a fist in frustration on the table, kick the ground, go to a corner and shout "Ahhhh!", take a few deep breaths and go grab a Coke from the bar, collect your thoughts, and go hit the sidegames. They're juicier than all hell.

[steamboatin]

My favorite part is where He does everything in his power to induce a call and then gets upset about the out come and berates the other player for doing exactly what He wanted the other player to do in the first place.

[snoopdarr]

You people simply don't understand the higher level thinking Phil has (and you never will).

His thinking was NOT to simply call, because of the risk a hand like AJ will flop his ace, and he gets nothing with his premium hand. So he raises big to make this hand fold.

THEN, something changes when the person thinks about calling. Now Phil KNOWS he is in a commanding 67-33 or better position if the player pushes. So of course he wants him to move in. And it was an awful play. It's even more disgusting after that flop when he's 85-15ish. He shoulda flipped the whole table over. Good thing he's got flabby little arms and couldn't do that if he tried. "three days of nearly perfect play" should never go down the tubes like this!

[pokerjoker]

I think poker has become a soap opera for men.
At least for a lot of men.

I did think his idea in=magining himself with 34 was pretty cool. I will probably try that next time I have a monster in a live game.

[BigFishSmallCardRoom]

I was watching ESPN's coverage of a WSOP event and they were talking with one of the guys who happened to goto school with Hellmuth in Wisconsin and played in home games with him. He said that Hellmuth NEVER gave up any good advice or insight. He's incredibly selfish and is unwilling to pass on info that might help others. That's why his columns are never very insightful or informational. I don't know why CP even lets him have a column.