LA Weekly-Phil Helmuth Article(very long)

MCS · #1 12-10-2005, 08:57 PM

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.

#2 12-10-2005, 09:06 PM

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

#3 12-12-2005, 02:56 AM

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?

#4 12-12-2005, 07:50 AM

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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 · #5 12-12-2005, 06:12 PM

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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

#6 12-12-2005, 06:22 PM

Yeah, it's doubtful that Helmuth has played in the most WSOP events ever and tons of players play in the WSOP events and never win bracelets, let alone 9 of them. It's just a little surprising to me to hear all this Helmuth isn't that good talk.

#7 12-12-2005, 10:15 PM

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

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I'm sorry, I don't understand what's stupid about the statement. Obviously I'm just speculating, but it seems kind of intuitive.

TStoneMBD · #8 12-12-2005, 11:55 PM

yah i agree with you. i dont know why pittm said your statement is stupid. i thought you hit the nail on the head. i dont know the numbers but as you said its possible that phil hellmuth has played in more wsop events than any other player. this is probably not true but hes probably towards the top. having said that his 9 rings is certainly a great accomplishment even if its mostly due to him running well [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]