Posts Tagged ‘Phil Hellmuth’

Author explains why Phil Hellmuth is Poker’s Phil Mickelson

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

With 41 PGA Tour victories and 4 Majors Championships, Phil Mickelson is one of the greatest golfers of all-time. With 12 WSOP gold bracelets, Phil Hellmuth is one of the best poker players in history. And author/mental coach Jared Tendler has found a way to link both of these greats.

Tendler, who co-wrote The Mental Game of Poker 2 with Barry Carter, described both Hellmuth and Mickelson as guys who are excellent at their respective games, but have issues when things aren’t going right.

He told PokerListings, “Hellmuth and Mickelson both have more mental game issues than Tiger and Ivey. Both Hellmuth and Mickelson are great champions, won a ton, but I don’t think they have the composure and consistency that Ivey and Tiger show.” He added, “That’s a testament to how good they are when they’re at their best but it’s almost more telling about how good they are at their worst.”

Tendler also drew a comparison between Phil Ivey and Tiger Woods by saying that they both bring a mental intensity and focus that no other player can match.

“Like Tiger and Mickelson at their best might actually be equal. But Tiger might be three shots better when they’re both at their worst,” said Tendler. “Ivey might be a full big bet better than Hellmuth, or Galfond or whoever when they’re at their worst.”

The author also explained one of the biggest concepts in his book, which is being “in the zone.” Tendler stated the following:

The zone is basically the peak of your mental performance. It’s the space in your own mind where everything just seems sort of easy and natural. You’re making very high-level decisions very easily.

If you’re a golfer your golf swing is working out and every shot’s going where you want it and you’re able to visualize the shot very easily.

In poker your reads are spot-on and you’re able to make correct decisions easily, sometimes to the point that you’re not even sure exactly why it’s right.

Seeing as how poker skills are determined by your drive to learn and ability to focus, it definitely sounds like Tendler’s book could be pretty helpful for players.

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Michael Phelps competes in First Major Poker Tournament

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

Olympic great Michael Phelps continues his flirtation with the poker world after competing in the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event. This was actually Phelps’ first “major” live tournament and he admitted to being nervous about the experience.

However, the nerves quickly subsided and he got some big hands early on to remain in contention. Phelps would go on to survive the first day and make a strong run in the second day as well. Unfortunately, he was eliminated on the final level of Day 2 by Eddy Sabat.

The hand began with Sabat leading out with 4,800 chips, which Michael called. With the rest of the table having folded, the flop was dealt Ks-Qd-5d. Sabat bet another 6,200 and Phelps called before the dealer dealt a 6c turn card. Eddy checked here while the 18-time Olympic gold medalist bet out 8,000 chips; Sabat called and a Jc river card was dealt afterward.

This prompted Sabat to go all-in while Phelps called him and flipped over 6s-6h for a set. However, Sabat had him beat after completing a broadway straight on the river.

With Michael Phelps now eliminated, so too goes the biggest celebrity at the 2013 PCA Main Event. But with a solid performance in his first big poker tournament, it’s likely that we’ll see the best swimmer in history at other major events.

As for his entire poker career, Phelps spent a lot of time playing cash games in Las Vegas following the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He became friends with poker greats like Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth during this time while improving his live skills. Eventually, Phelps final tabled a 2008 Caesars Palace Classic side event and earned $5,213 for the finish. Now that he’s retired from swimming, we should see a few more strong tournament finishes from him.

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Phil Hellmuth wins WSOPE Main Event

Friday, October 5th, 2012

Just yesterday, we discussed how Phil Hellmuth was leading the 2012 WSOPE Main Event final table. The truth is that we didn’t expect the Poker Brat to actually win – even with his experience and skill – because it seems like the final table chip leader is never a safe bet for some reason. But Hellmuth was able to finish the job and win the WSOPE Main Event along with €1,022,376 ($1.33 million).

The Poker Brat was quite humbled by his victory as he said, “I don’t say this often, but I am truly humbled by this. This is one of the most prestigious titles in poker and to get this one, it’s right up there with the (1989) World Championship.”

Hellmuth continued to reflect on the WSOPE win by saying, “I played the best poker of my life in this tournament. My game is constantly evolving. I tried some new things out that really worked this time. My game is never the same. You’ve got to constantly be improving, and that’s what I do.”

What’s truly impressive about Hellmuth is how he continues to make poker history, despite holding plenty of records already. His WSOPE victory makes him the only player to ever win both this tournament and the WSOP Main Event.

The Poker Brat also extended his gold bracelet record to 13, which means neither Doyle Brunson nor Johnny Chan will be catching him any time soon with their 10 bracelets. It’ll also be a long time before anybody even comes close to the 95 WSOP cashes that Hellmuth has accumulated in his career.

Once the 2012 WSOP Main Event concludes on October 30th, Phil will be adding a Player of the Year award to his lengthy list of accolades. All in all, this year was extremely kind to Hellmuth.

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Phil Hellmuth in Position to win 2012 WSOPE Main Event

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

With $16,159,430 in live tournament winnings and a record 12 WSOP gold bracelets, it seems like Phil Hellmuth has won just about everything. But the reality is that there are titles the Poker Brat hasn’t won including the WSOPE Main Event. Interestingly enough, the Poker Brat is in a good position to add the 2012 WSOPE Main Event title to his decorated resume since he leads the final table with 3,434,000 chips.

But it’s worth mentioning that he leads by the slimmest of margins because Sergii Baranov is right behind him with 3,339,000 chips. The Ukrainian businessman is an amateur player who’s won two EPT side events in his career.

Joseph Cheong (1.966 million) is definitely a player of interest on this final table since he finished third place in the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Thanks to this $4,130,059 cash and plenty of other strong tournament finishes, Cheong has racked up $5,377,687 in career winnings.

Both Stephane Albertini (1.162m) and Christopher Brammer (851k) are certainly formidable players. Both of these poker pros have experienced considerable success on the live tournament circuit and will be looking to add their biggest career cashes.

One more player that should definitely be discussed here is Jason Mercier. Sure the Florida native has one of the smallest remaining chip stacks, but his experience definitely makes him someone to watch. It would be nice to see Mercier collect a big cash since he’s struggled in 2012 – or at least struggling for a guy who’s collected $7,912,297 in live tourneys.

With just one more day to go in the WSOPE Main Event, we’ll get to see the winner crowned tonight. Hellmuth would certainly provide a marquee winner, but both Cheong and Mercier are well-noted players as well.

2012 WSOPE Main Event Final Table

1. Phil Hellmuth – 3,434,000 chips
2. Sergii Baranov – 3,339,000
3. Joseph Cheong – 1,966,000
4. Stephane Albertini – 1,162,000
5. Christopher Brammer – 851,000
6. Stephane Girault – 664,000
7. Jason Mercier – 652,000
8. Paul Tedeschi – 543,000

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Michael Phelps eyeing Poker after 2012 Olympics

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

The 2012 Summer Olympics may still be raging on in London, but for Michael Phelps, the Olympics are over. He added four more gold medals and two silvers this year, which is a nice cap to what seems like the end of his career. So what’s next for the most decorated Olympic athlete in history?

Well it looks like he’s already planning his next move with poker. He’s dabbled in poker before, and now there are rumors of him preparing to hit the felt again. Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth are just two of the poker players who have been keeping Phelps company, and ever since the 2008 Olympics, it seems like the game has become one of his main hobbies. Since Phelps enjoys poker so much, it’s rumored that he wants to become more serious about playing in the future.

The New York Times revealed the swimmer’s future plans of focusing more on poker with the following:

An avid card player, Phelps said it would be cool to participate in the World Series of Poker. “My game is a little off right now,” he said, “so I’ll have to start improving it a little bit.”

Since he was a little preoccupied with training for the 2012 Summer Olympics this year, he wasn’t able to focus as much energy on playing poker. Not to worry though…there is always next year’s WSOP and with the swimming career being put on the back burner, he can finally focus on poker.

Michael Phelps will surely enjoy his time away from swimming by returning to as normal of a life as possible for the all-time Olympic gold medal record holder (18). He plans to go to NFL football games, have play dates with the likes of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

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UB Poker Documentary covers Scandals, Hellmuth

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

It’s been a few years since the UB Poker superuser scandal took place, but that doesn’t mean the poker world is any more accepting of this unbelievable cheating incident. In fact, many people still want blood for the millions of dollars that players were cheated out of when certain UB employees used superuser accounts. And while that blood may never come due to the non-regulation of online poker back then, at least those involved with the incident can be further shamed.

That’s what poker player and writer Scott Bell is hoping to accomplish with the untitled documentary he’s currently working on. Bell recently did an interview with QuadJacks Radio about his UB Poker documentary, and the film will take a deeper look at the corrupt poker site and its main figures.

One of the biggest figures that will be discussed is current bwin.party CEO Jim Ryan, who ran UB’s parent company, Excapsa. Bell believes that Ryan didn’t do enough in his role as Excapsa’s CEO when players were cheated out of money. Furthermore, he hints that Ryan and others took steps to cover up the extent of the superuser cheating.

Aside from profiling Ryan, Bell will also take a look at other big names who were associated with UB Poker. Phil Hellmuth is the biggest name that surfaced in the interview, and the 12-time WSOP champion has done his best to avoid answering any questions about the site he proudly represented.

If you’re interested in seeing the documentary, Bell said that he should be finished with it towards the end of the fall. Once it’s finished, players will be able to order DVD’s directly from Bell’s company.

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Antonio Esfandiari wins $18.35m – Does Winnings List have any Meaning?

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

The biggest poker news of the week is no doubt Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari winning the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament. He navigated through a 48-player field and on towards victory as much of the poker world watched with intent interest. And a huge reason for all the interest was the $18,346,673 first place prize on the line!

Once Esfandiari finished Sam Trickett off in heads-up play, he was the recipient of this insane fortune….or at least he and his backers were. Seeing as how The Magician sold a lot of his shares in order to meet the hefty buy-in and cut down on variance, he likely received less than 50% of the $18.35 million. However, the full amount goes down in the record books and vaults him towards the top of the all-time live poker tournament winnings list with $23,245,828.

This is certainly nice for the headlines and could definitively bring some more recreational players into the game. However, it completely obliterates any sort of relevancy that the all-time tournament winnings list used to have.

These days, the tourney winnings list doesn’t mean much to a lot of players because they can’t compete with top-level pros who have lots of backing. Furthermore, events like the Big One for One Drop are more like glorified sit and go’s than anything since only a small number of players are competing, yet ridiculous amounts of money are up for grabs.

So how should we view the poker tournament winnings list in today’s era? Well it’s a fun little thing to look at from time to time, but you certainly can’t measure one’s overall tourney success from this. That said, there are still some very fine players towards the top of the winnings list – it’s just that the average grinder will never have an opportunity to compete with them.

Big One for One Drop Results

1. Antonio Esfandiari — $18,346,673
2. Sam Trickett — $10,112,001
3. David Einhorn — $4,352,000
4. Phil Hellmuth — $2,645,333
5. Guy Laliberté — $1,834,666
6. Brian Rast — $1,621,333
7. Bobby Baldwin — $1,408,000
8. Richard Yong — $1,237,333
9. Mike Sexton — $1,109,333

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Phil Hellmuth was scared before 12th WSOP Bracelet

Monday, June 11th, 2012

When correlating the game of poker and confidence, Phil Hellmuth is one of the first names that comes to mind. After all, the Poker Brat has spent his career berating other players for their mistakes and giving them lessons on how to play better. So it’s quite surprising when he admitted to being fearful as he crept closer towards a record-extending 12th WSOP gold bracelet.

Although Hellmuth did accomplish his goal of winning the 2012 WSOP Event #18 Seven Card Razz tournament, he expressed his fears by saying, “Fear set in a couple of times. When he (Don Zewin) made a nice run, I was like, ‘oh my god, not again,’ and I said, ‘no, eliminate all negative thoughts and just focus on playing great.” He added, “I was just thinking one thing, ‘play perfect poker,’ and pushing all the negative thoughts out of my head. I just wanted to win.”

It’s understandable that Hellmuth had plenty of negative thoughts since he finished second place in three different 2011 WSOP tournaments. However, this time was different since he was able to defeat Zewin heads-up and pull off the victory.

The Poker Brat explained this by saying, “Zewin’s a great player – he’s been a professional cash game player since the 80′s. When it was me and Chan heads-up at the final table, he finished third in ‘89 in the Main Event. I’ve been playing with him for decades – he’s just tough as nails, and he’s not going to give anything away.”

As cocky as Hellmuth can be, it’s also nice to see him prove all of the critics wrong who’d said the game passed him by years ago. It’s still clear that the Wisconsin native has plenty of poker skills, and he’s going to remain a force in the game for years to come.

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Stories to watch in 2012 WSOP

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Right now is the best time of the year to be a poker fan since the 2012 WSOP has officially begun. And as always, it promises to be yet another amazing event filled with big winners and memorable stories. But a few stories will no doubt stand out above the rest, and here are some tales that we think will be the most prominent.

Phil Hellmuth hunting for his 12th Bracelet

Once again, Hellmuth going after his elusive and record-extending twelfth WSOP gold bracelet will no doubt be a hot topic of discussion. Just the fact that the Poker Brat finished 61st in Event #2 was already a big story, so imagine how much he’ll dominate the poker headlines by making a deeper run.

$1 Million Buy-in Tournament

We’ve already heard a ton of talk about the Big One for One Drop since its $1 million buy-in is a record. Another record will also fall when the winner is crowned because the top prize is expected to be worth between $15-$18 million (depending on the number of entrants). Jamie Gold currently holds the record for the largest poker tournament payout ($12 million), but don’t expect this mark to be standing in early July.

Viktor Blom playing in First WSOP

We’ve seen a lot of Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom over the last few years since he’s such a successful online cash game player. However, this is the first look that we’ll have of the 21-year-old in the WSOP. Blom has had some tourney success already (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller title), and it will be interesting to see if he can expand on this.

Phil Ivey is Back

Ivey was sorely missed at the 2011 WSOP – as he supposedly sat out to protest Full Tilt Poker’s poor management before and after Black Friday. But he won’t be skipping the world’s largest poker event this year since he’s already competed in a couple of tournaments. You can bet that people will be watching with great interest to see how the world’s best all-around poker player performs this year.

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Brad Booth calls out Phil Hellmuth over UB

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Several years ago, Brad Booth was at the top of the poker world since he was one of the richest and most respected players on the planet. And it didn’t hurt matters that “Yukon Brad” had an interesting back story to go along with all of his success that included grinding in the tiny Yukon Territory town of Whitehorse.

But these days, he is simply known as a has-been who lost his fortune due to bankroll mis-mangement and the UB superuser scandal. The latter ended up costing Booth over $2 million, and he cites this as the reason for a downward spiral that caused him to question his playing style and lose lots more money.

Keeping all of this in mind, Booth refuses to drop the UB scandal, and is going after anybody who knew about/was involved with this injustice. The 35-year-old has taken his story to the TwoPlusTwo forum recently so he can bring more light to the situation. He made the following post, which directly mentions Phil Hellmuth and Russ Hamilton:

I didn’t expect to hear from Russ, and it has thrown me for a little loooop- i was supposed to meet face to face with him the other night, but he backed out the 11thhour— sick riv.

on another note– they couldn’t offer me 5 million dollars tomorrow to keep my mouth shut…i will NEVER sell out to myself or the Poker community- the guys involved need to be held accountable…. no more free passes- Now lets start listening to the people that actually have investigated this stuff !

i also had a 45min convo with Phil Hellmuth the other night– i believe he owes and has some explaining to do to the Poker Community– lets ask him for some clarity

Judging from his words, it doesn’t appear as if Booth thinks Hellmuth is a superuser or anything like that. However, he does believe that the Poker Brat knows more to the story and needs to let the poker community know everything.

 

 

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