Phil Hellmuth ... the man, the myth, the persona?

[DimensionPresident]

I wanted to change my signature to this:

"I'm out in New Orleans at 2 a.m. and I'm getting recognized. As I've become bigger, I've heard the whispers, 'There goes a world champ.' " -PH c/o PP's LJ

But apparently you can't use sigs on this board. Anyway, I got to thinking... that quote is so ridiculous/hilarious, I have to think that Phil just says [censored] like this because he knows that's what people have come to expect of him.

It seems his reputation has outgrown his real personality, and he is capitlizing on that by being over-the-top and taking it to the proverbial "next level".

It reminds me of the "bad guys" in professional wrestling. There may be some underlying truth and sincerity in his actions, but I think a lot of it is just him playing up to the cameras to solidify his reputation as being eccentric / psychotic.

Does anyone think he is even being 100% "serious as cancer" serious anymore?

[Malificent]

I do. I think he was tragically born without the internal censor that most of us have combined with an incredibly large ego. In his poker solar system, he is the sun around which all players orbit. Its kind of sad, honestly.

[Airpoaneman]

Just check out his website!!!
" You can call him Phillip, or you can call him Phil, but however you greet him, you'll have to look up to say hi, because Phil Hellmuth, Jr., late of Madison, Wisconsin, and now of all-world poker glory, stands on a stack of poker-and-life achievements that makes him the envy of poker players and non-players alike. Let's just hit the highlights, shall we? "

[Paul Phillips]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone think he is even being 100% "serious as cancer" serious anymore?

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe not 100% but at least high 90s. Here's another thread about it, conveniently linked directly to my most trenchant hellmuth analysis.

[whiskeytown]

reminds me of that line from Permanent Midnight, where they ask how Ben Stiller's character could be a smack addict for so long in Hollywood and not have problems...

and he points out that people in Hollywood are SO self absorbed that any possible issue you could possibly have gets ignored as not being in their interest - Phil's like that, I think.

RB

[DimensionPresident]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe not 100% but at least high 90s. Here's another thread about it, conveniently linked directly to my most trenchant hellmuth analysis.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know how that thread slid past my radar as it's only a week old. It's even more freaky that the original author also used the professional wrestler analogy.

If Phil is being 100% real, I think that makes it even better (from an entertainment stand point). To think that this guy actually hears (in his head) whispers of "there goes a world champion" when he walks by is really funny to me.

He very well could be the Courtney Love of poker.

[whiskeytown]

I think it's actually the tune of the Pixies singing "Here Comes Your Man"

"outside there's a box car waiting
outside the family stew
out by the fire breathing
outside we wait 'til face turns blue
i know the nervous walking
i know the dirty beard hangs
out by the box car waiting
take me away to nowhere plains
there is a wait so long
here comes your man

big shake on the box car moving
big shake to the land that's falling down
is a wind makes a palm stop blowing
a big, big stone fall and break my crown
there is a wait so long
you'll never wait so long
here comes your man
there is a wait so long
you'll never wait so long
here comes your man"