Paul Phillips, $2-5 Mirage

[The Ram]

Mason-
I agree with you for the most part. But, I differ on one point. To explain, and to clear up some misconceptions everyone has about me and the circumstance, and hopefully to end all this, here we go:
While we were all playing, Paul was doing a lot of talking. He was telling stories, discussing bits of strategy, just chatting it up. Now, as I said before, I'm a pretty decent player and most people there were pretty bad. The last thing that Paul was saying on a regular basis was exactly what I was also thinking: I really want to take all the chips on this table. I'm totally cool with that. In fact, since I had the second biggest stack, I didn't think anything of the fact that he spent the whole time telling me he wanted to get my chips into play, because if I thought I was better than him I'd be licking my chips looking at his stack too.
So, all that said, when I left the table with a bunch of money, I can also concede that he thought "Damn, I can't believe all those chips are leaving the table when the guy replacing him can only buying for like 30% of that amount". But, by the time I came over to introduce myself (I was a few seats away during the game and didn't want to be awkward), this is a time to put all that aside. After all the comments about taking my stack that he made while we were playing, there is no chance he was just making a little joke with his comment at the end. And, given that I came to him showing effusive respect and admiration, even if it were a joke it would have been in poor taste and timing.
That's all I meant by my original post (which by the way was over 50% commentary on stuff that I learned while playing with him and how glad I was for the experience). If people don't agree at this point that his words were a little classless, or if they do agree, either way there is no longer any real point to this line of discussion.
Paul, as I previously said, I was a little let down by your response but I was glad to play with you and would be glad to do so again. I hope you will come back to the forum; I just think that you should try to compartmentalize a bit between displays of impressive poker insight (which I believe you possess) and the self-pride/confidence/ego/whatever that drives you.

~The Ram

[citanul]

This thread is really sort of sickening in a variety of ways.

The thing that keeps circling in my head while I read this nonsense is the following:

I believe that every player who has ever had a regular home game has made comments to other players in the lines of "sorry you've got to go before you could lose all that money." This is not to mention of course, all the players who don't have regular home games who make the same comments. If you've never made a comment like it, well, what can I say beyond "try lightening up some time, maybe grab a beer, or something." If you're incapable of messing around with people in a friendly manner, you've got way more problems than someoen who may or may not be arrogant.

Additionally, as was pointed out, there is no social contract that says that you have to be a sweetheart to the other players in the game. Nothing. If you say haven't heard, said, or been told worse things at a poker table than it seems Paul said in this case, you are likely a liar.

Vince: You swore you would never post in a thread that was about Paul, ever again. Perhaps you should stick to that promise, considering your "internet history" with Mr. Phillips.

Worst of all about this thread is the fact that it ostensibly started as something approaching a strategy question. Sadly, it looks like any time there is a strategy question in any way attached to someone who is anything like a celebrity, it devolves quickly into a character attack.

Yeah, sure "Paul Phillips is classless." Sure. He may not have the queen's tact, but he doesn't actually appear to be a jerk, just have a sense of humor. He also seems to be posessed of the same "disorder" many intelligent people have, that of having little patience for ignorant, obnoxious people.

Grow up guys,

citanul

[tripdad]

[ QUOTE ]
yes, you should treat him better because he provides you a huge net benefit by thinking about the game and sharing it with you for free. that is, you should treat him the way you'd treat a teacher in a school, not the way you'd treat someone in a relationship of equals--and for the same reason, i.e., respect for their greater stature (assuming you treat teachers with more deference for reasons beyond their ability to give you a bad grade)

[/ QUOTE ]

if you think PP is going to come here and give free advice to thousands of anonymous posters about their game that is worth a crap, you are silly. his business is winning money in poker games. he must maintain an edge to maintain his income.

as for those complaining of his rudeness, i would expect nothing less from a professional poker player. i play against pros all the time(though none that any of you have heard of), and none are what i would call friendly or "bubbly". in fact, a fistfight is not unheard of, and firearms are constantly present. the f-you's, and c-suckers go in one ear and out the other.

i play regularly in just one "friendly game", and, quite frankly i tend to bore of it quite quickly.

cheers!

[citanul]

while the sentiment of your post is kind of in line with my own thinking, some of your post is just stupid and silly.

the argument that paul is a professional so he will never offer advice for free on a message board is the particular thing that stands out as idiotic. the clear reason being of course that he has offered advice on poker for free on a message board. so do many other actual real live poker pros who post on this message board. they don't seem overly worried about maintaining their edge by not ever answering a question or providing insight. neither does paul.

further, your explaination of "expecting nothing less of a pro" is just moronic as well. there are, once again, many, many polite pros. many, infact, that post here. i'm a bit curious where it is that you "all the time" play with pros who carry guns to the table.

this all goes above and beyond the fact that i really doubt that paul meant his comments to be derogatory when they were said, and probably just meant them to be some dickish kidding around.

citanul

[Ryno]

Eric has it exactly right.

[rigoletto]

[ QUOTE ]
In limit you can beat bad players by tightening up. In no-limit there are a LOT of ways to beat them and tightening up is nowhere near the most profitable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Paul. You are by all acounts (not that I have that many) a good NL player, but this statement about limit is incorrect: There are lot's of ways to beat bad players in limit and tightening up is just about the least profitable of those. I suspect that at the core strategies for beating bad players is very similar in NL and FL but the execution is somewhat different. I refer to Ed Miller on how to beat bad FL players.

[Vince Lepore]

[ QUOTE ]
Eric has it exactly right.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that is one hell of a claim. Please explain just what is it that Eric has "exactly right."

He's a fraud!

Vince

[rigoletto]

Ups! I didn't read the whole thread before I posted: I appologize for putting poker content in here!

[Ryno]

"He's a fraud!"

"Now that is one hell of a claim."

LOL.

Right now, if I asked you if you were a "winning" poker player (whatever that means), would you need to play 50,000 hands before you could answer? Eric is putting statistics in their proper perspective.

[Vince Lepore]

Mason,

What is your opinion concerning these claims of Eric making 60/hr/game at 15-30 online. And El diablo (the masked man) that many people that "he knows" make at least that. Of course Eric only claims 30k hands, maybe 300 Hrs, of play at 15-30. Am I wrong to ask for some kind of verification of these numbers? Especially from a guy that has a wesite and is selling lesson "packages" for around $150. Oh, I forgot this Eric guy majored in Math at MIT. Impressive, to say the least. Of course he doesn't mention what year he graduated or what his degree is in. I don't knoiw maybe I'm from Missouri. I always say "Show Me"!

Vince