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I don't think it was an easy laydown. I thought I remembered it being a tough one. I thought he flopped top two pair and then folded to something on the turn that gave his opponet trips. Maybe I don't remember it as well, but I thought it was a tough one and the announcers were talking about how great it was. Anyways..perhaps my memory is off of it, who knows!

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Okay, Daniel Negreanu has actually written that Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson combined haven't played in as many WSOP events as Phil Hellmuth. He's probably exaggerating, but the point still stands.

Second of all, why does this have to be about absolutes? Phil Hellmuth is obviously a very talented tournament poker player, no matter what you think of him, I was just honestly trying to explain why some people don't put him in the top 10 or even the top 50.

The hand in question, Phil had AK and this old guy to his left had AA. Phil had raised pre-flop and the guy reraised. The flop was A44 - Hellmuth checked, the guy checked behind. The turn was a Q. Hellmuth checked again (I think) and the guy bet twice the pot. The tightest player at the table had reraised preflop, and, on the A44Q board, Phil's AK is now behind AA, AQ, and QQ. Just saying.