LA Weekly-Phil Helmuth Article(very long)

[MCS]

For me, knowing a fair amount about poker makes it really hard to appreciate fawning articles by non-players. I mean, I can read the board, and I understand that tournament poker is built on illusions.

So it's hard for me to really know how the author feels while playing, or to be as starry-eyed about the tournament poker scene.

As much as the article praises Hellmuth, I wouldn't be surprised if Phil wrote it himself.

Ok...now I'm wondering something. Is the thought out there that Hellmuth isn't that good? Daniel Negreanu in All In magazine said the top players lick their lips when they see him coming to a cash game. Now is this because Hellmuth said something poorly about Daniel once or something, or is he really not one of the top players in the world. Keeping in mind that at a table of top players, probably none of them would really be scared of anyone since they know the game so well/each other.

In my opinion, and this is only from me seeing him on TV mind you, he is very very good. I've seen him in the Heads up championship look awesome in my opinion and he always looks great in his other tournaments on decision making, reads, etc. I don't care about how he reacts to bad beats in this discussion, try to put away your thoughts on how much you hate him as a person. Is the guy with 9 bracelets in Hold Em not that good?

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Ok...now I'm wondering something. Is the thought out there that Hellmuth isn't that good?

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The thought is out there, and in fact appears to be pretty much agreed-upon by top level players. There is a school of thought that Phil Hellmuth has not adapted well to today's bigger tournament fields and more aggressive players, which don't seem to suit his style.

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Daniel Negreanu in All In magazine said the top players lick their lips when they see him coming to a cash game.

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Remember that No Limit Hold'em tournaments represent a small subset of poker overall. And it definitely appears to be conventional wisdom that whenever Hellmuth ventures out of tournaments, into high stakes cash games, he is unsuccessful. Whether that's due to a lack of technical ability or bad self-control, or both, I can't speculate on. Negreanu is far from the only person to say something along these lines.

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In my opinion, and this is only from me seeing him on TV mind you, he is very very good.

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Sure, but to be fair you have to acknowledge that it's hard to accurately tell how good or bad someone is from a small number of hands on tv. I'm not being critical, I'm just saying that in fairness one has to acknowledge that.

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I don't care about how he reacts to bad beats in this discussion, try to put away your thoughts on how much you hate him as a person.

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Right, I'm not talking about his personality or image. That said, it's definitely possible that the perceived "consensus" on his skill level is biased by a reaction to his personality. We really have no way of knowing.

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Is the guy with 9 bracelets in Hold Em not that good?

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About the nine bracelets, while it's certainly an impressive achievement, it's worth mentioning that Phil Hellmuth apparently plays a lot of World Series tournaments. And he's played a lot of World Series tournaments for a lot of years. And it's therefore conceivable that he's played more WSOP events than any other individual, ever. Worth bearing in mind.

[PITTM]

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Is the guy with 9 bracelets in Hold Em not that good?

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About the nine bracelets, while it's certainly an impressive achievement, it's worth mentioning that Phil Hellmuth apparently plays a lot of World Series tournaments. And he's played a lot of World Series tournaments for a lot of years. And it's therefore conceivable that he's played more WSOP events than any other individual, ever. Worth bearing in mind.

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i dont know what is stupider...the article, or that statement.

rj

[TStoneMBD]

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Phil Hellmuth is arguably one of the five or 10 or 20 best poker players in the world, depending on how you do the handicapping (he thinks of himself as simply No. 1

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lol.

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One white-haired woman, a hippie-ish homeopathic doctor from Oregon, tells me she wants to quit medicine to play tournament poker full time. “It’s a lot more fun than what I do now,” she says. “And I can make a lot more money.”

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lol.

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Chris Hindle, a 21-year-old British law student (make that former law student), has a similar yen. “I started watching poker about a year ago, and Phil was one of the first players I noticed,” he says. “I was studying law, but decided I didn’t want to go into it. I’ve been playing poker online and doing pretty well. I paid for this camp with student loan assistance. Over there they give you about a thousand pounds for the semester, so I took it and treated myself to this.”

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lol.

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A full hour on why sunglasses are so cool

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lol.

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Chris “Jesus Christ” Ferguson

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lol.



I enjoyed this read and on a strategical note the stuff about the tells is actually very informative and interesting. On another strategical note the guy who wrote this article sucks at poker.

By god I actually read that whole post. I must say I was pulled in. Im new to Texas Hold'em hell im new to cards all together and I must say I enjoy playing, but that story makes me wanna try and go pro LOL.

Great read.