Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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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!" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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

Greg

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

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.

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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.

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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."

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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.

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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

Why does CP PAY this guy to write this crap?

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

chez

Re: I know it\'s HIM, but seriously?
 

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

/end cliche