Hellmuth Blog

[DanielNegreanu 141]

Has he ever said to you Daniel why he must say what celebs he is hanging out with or why he must say how much he spends on things? Like said many times before, it gets really old, really fast. I cant even read his cardplayer colums anymore because they are always about what celebs he is playing with.

That actually annoys me too. A funny story: At the CardPlayer/Bodog awards I ran into Phil early in the evening and he asked me what I've been up to. I said something like, "you know, just hanging out with some friends and stuff." I didn't tell him who they were, and I'm not going to repeat their names here, but he would have been impressed as they were high end celebrities. Anyway, Phil then goes into this routine: "Yeah I was just in Florida for a charity event. I charge $50,000 now for an evening with me. That's more than any other player. I ran into Michael Jordan there, he's a really big fan. I was supposed to golf with him but I told him I had to leave town, you know how it is. On my way here I stoppoed over at my good buddy Andy Roddick's house for a while...etc." He told the SAME story to EVERYONE he ran into that day, lol. It was funny comparing notes later.

[silkyjonson 1]

That actually annoys me too. A funny story: At the CardPlayer/Bodog awards I ran into Phil early in the evening and he asked me what I've been up to. I said something like, "you know, just hanging out with some friends and stuff." I didn't tell him who they were, and I'm not going to repeat their names here, but he would have been impressed as they were high end celebrities. Anyway, Phil then goes into this routine: "Yeah I was just in Florida for a charity event. I charge $50,000 now for an evening with me. That's more than any other player. I ran into Michael Jordan there, he's a really big fan. I was supposed to golf with him but I told him I had to leave town, you know how it is. On my way here I stoppoed over at my good buddy Andy Roddick's house for a while...etc." He told the SAME story to EVERYONE he ran into that day, lol. It was funny comparing notes later.

Its clear that at some point he has had a self esteem/image problem. In most cases of the people who I know like PH were'nt ok with who they were or who they thought they were so they put up a huge image to convince themselves/show people that they are liked are the best etc. Very similar to a lot of guys that take advantage or cheat on girls all the time, its because they are not secure so they need to seek attention all the time to make themselves feel like they are wanted etc.

[shrimp4789 0]

thats the exact reason i cant stand the man. sure hes good at tournament poker, but thats it. im surprised he has fans, hes so far up his own *** to even notice them. i swear, DN next time you see Phil, ask him if he thinks hes a God........i would be surprised if he said no

[Naismith 0]

Dan, I addressed this earlier in the thread and figured you'd know better than anyone. Phil has the reputation of being strictly a Hold'em player, but he has pretty good tournament results in other games as well. He has to be at least pretty good in disciplines other than hold'em, right?

[DanielNegreanu 141]

Dan, I addressed this earlier in the thread and figured you'd know better than anyone. Phil has the reputation of being strictly a Hold'em player, but he has pretty good tournament results in other games as well. He has to be at least pretty good in disciplines other than hold'em, right?

No. He beleives he is a good pot limit Omaha player as well, and I think in tournaments, he'd be ok, but in all other forms of poker I would rank his skills as below average. I honestly don't think he would beat a 100-200 limit hold'em game at the Bellagio, let alone other forms of poker. He's had some success in Omaha H/L tournaments as well, but when there is a board, like in Razz, Stud, Stud H/L he lacks solid fundamentals and you can't get away with that in those games. He has a knack for tournament poker, much like T.J Cloutier and Scotty Nguyen, but if you put him in an arena where you are just playing for money (lower variance swings) he'd be an underdog in most poker games due to a limited knowledge base. That's just my opinion of course, and I could be wrong, but when he is in a cash game I don't think "tough game" I think, "well, that game can't be all bad."

[socalpoker_j 1]

No. He beleives he is a good pot limit Omaha player as well, and I think in tournaments, he'd be ok, but in all other forms of poker I would rank his skills as below average. I honestly don't think he would beat a 100-200 limit hold'em game at the Bellagio, let alone other forms of poker. He's had some success in Omaha H/L tournaments as well, but when there is a board, like in Razz, Stud, Stud H/L he lacks solid fundamentals and you can't get away with that in those games. He has a knack for tournament poker, much like T.J Cloutier and Scotty Nguyen, but if you put him in an arena where you are just playing for money (lower variance swings) he'd be an underdog in most poker games due to a limited knowledge base. That's just my opinion of course, and I could be wrong, but when he is in a cash game I don't think "tough game" I think, "well, that game can't be all bad."

Ok, the real question is, when are we going to see some shirtless, nipply pics of Daniel Negreanu mimicing Phil Hellmuth's ESPN bit?

[silkyjonson 1]

Ok, the real question is, when are we going to see some shirtless, nipply pics of Daniel Negreanu mimicing Phil Hellmuth's ESPN bit?

Finally someone just comes out and says it.

[ricker 0]

You remind of that Simpson's where Homer gets way into a tv show, and he makes screen names based on it and whenever he wants to make a point he can only do it by refrencing the show cause he really had no valid point to begin with. lolzUm, I mean, so only if you are in here to kiss *** are you allowed to post and if you aren't kissing *** its not because your not an *** kisser its bacause you can't move on with your life? That reminds of the Simpson's where.......Besides Futurama > Simpsons anyway.

I don't think I've seen this episode....hmm...must be in the last five years when they started to suck

Acutally I just used it as an analogy cause it was simple and anyone could understand it. You on the other hand can't get past it. This is what, the third time you mentioned it not as an anology but trying to make it something else? I picked basketball cause it came to mind, the reason i am sitting here chain posting is I hurt my foot playing b-ball the other day and I still can't even get my shoe on its so swollen.So theories of my having a fixation on fat kids and/or hating poker pros being congratulated for a moderately funny parody of an easy target are a tad off base.And FYI yes actually shredding Mother Theresa would be worth congrats, as a matter of fact I say it should be an automatic induction into the shredmaster hall of fame. Helmuth or Matusow? Not so much.

Shredding Mother Teresa? Shoot man, tha'ts easy. Penn and Teller's Bullshit did an episode doing such a thing and it was pretty damn interesting.

[Balloon guy 158]

So I think the final conclusion is that dropping names is the worst behaviour you can have."Never drop names"Robert DeNiro told me that once and I believe him.

[thecove 0]

I don't think there is any argument that Phil H is one of the greatest Hold Em tournament players of all time. As much as I suffocate everytime he self inflates his ego, I do respect his game.Oh and Daniel, you have to give Antonio Esfandiari a little grief the next time you see him for contributing to PH's ego on his recent commercial campaign. LOL

[thecove 0]

So I think the final conclusion is that dropping names is the worst behaviour you can have."Never drop names"Robert DeNiro told me that once and I believe him.

Now that was funny!

[StrippersNBlow 0]

I'd stuff the fat kid as quick and as hard as I would anyone else.

If DN ever has one of his chill at my house promotions again, don't feel bad if you're left out of the basketball game.

[getarealjob 0]

The point you are missing is that the short fat kid didn't deserve to be picked on and did nothing to warrant being picked on. When you dish it out, you have to be able to take it. You don't think guys like Matusow and Hellmuth dish it out? Hellmuth tells people they can't spell poker while Matusow just calls them idiots.... and I'm supposed to feel sorry for these guys?? Are you being for real? When you post a blog like the one Phil did, it would be an outright crime if no one made a parody of it!

guerilla marketing 101. Hellmuth is in the business of professional poker marketing, not professional poker playing. Phil Hellmuth is not a "professional poker player"; he's like a walking advertising billboard:. Negreanu, for all his marketing ploys, has managed to come out a legitimate poker player, and maintained his integrity through all of his success. Negreanu's blogs have always been consistently honest, and he puts himself out there whether we disagree with him or not. What we get with Negreanu is not a marketing team's agenda--we all know Negreanu would never succumb to that, and his love of poker extends beyond no-limit tournaments. Hellmuth is like a human coca cola can for poker. He's a marketing tool, par excellence. I don't care how many bracelets he wins, right now, he's a hypeman, first and foremost. All his rants are staged to a certain extent, and he's here to make as much money off poker from a residual standpoint. You'll never see Negreanu take advantage of his image to the extent that Hellmuth does. Negreanu has taken slack in the past for what he has blogged.My two cents on this matter.

[Sid Simelia 0]

I don't know, I still think there is a chance that Helmuth isn't an easy target. Maybe he's just the best tournament player in the world, and we're all just a bunch of idiots.

[tipster1964 0]

OK, I found the DN's blog amusing, but what pisses me off is that I paid the full dollar amount for 3 autographed copies of his book and he has his wife handing them out at a shelter. After all, I am basically homeless now after reading the book. PH is such a nit wit sometimes.

[akoff 0]

"guerilla marketing 101. Hellmuth is in the business of professional poker marketing, not professional poker playing. Phil Hellmuth is not a "professional poker player"; he's like a walking advertising billboard:. Negreanu, for all his marketing ploys, has managed to come out a legitimate poker player, and maintained his integrity through all of his success. Negreanu's blogs have always been consistently honest, and he puts himself out there whether we disagree with him or not. What we get with Negreanu is not a marketing team's agenda--we all know Negreanu would never succumb to that, and his love of poker extends beyond no-limit tournaments. Hellmuth is like a human coca cola can for poker. He's a marketing tool, par excellence. I don't care how many bracelets he wins, right now, he's a hypeman, first and foremost. All his rants are staged to a certain extent, and he's here to make as much money off poker from a residual standpoint. You'll never see Negreanu take advantage of his image to the extent that Hellmuth does. Negreanu has taken slack in the past for what he has blogged.My two cents on this matter. "YOU ARE CORRECT SIR.

[James D 0]

I honestly don't think he would beat a 100-200 limit hold'em game at the Bellagio, let alone other forms of poker.

This I find very interesting.Because in the days before poker existed (pre-2003...... little joke there, hehe! um.. sorry), in order to be a successful player, didn't you have to have an ability to play cash games. Like, was it even possible to get by on tournaments? And also, play all forms of poker, because NL Holdem wasn't played that much?I didn't play poker then, but I've heard that most of the top players hardly played tournaments anyway. It wasn't like today, where you could actually make loads of money from just tournaments. And Hellmuth was already an established name, and had been playing professionally for many years. So.. where did he make his money, pre-boom? (excluding the one win in 1989). Was he always a consistent loser in side games? I'm surprised he was able to continue playing, if he was.

[Acid_Knight 2]

This I find very interesting.Because in the days before poker existed (pre-2003...... little joke there, hehe! um.. sorry), in order to be a successful player, didn't you have to have an ability to play cash games. Like, was it even possible to get by on tournaments? And also, play all forms of poker, because NL Holdem wasn't played that much?I didn't play poker then, but I've heard that most of the top players hardly played tournaments anyway. It wasn't like today, where you could actually make loads of money from just tournaments. And Hellmuth was already an established name, and had been playing professionally for many years. So.. where did he make his money, pre-boom? (excluding the one win in 1989). Was he always a consistent loser in side games? I'm surprised he was able to continue playing, if he was.

Before 2003, there were still tons of tournaments going on, but there was not a 10K event to be played 3x each month. I know players who have made a living playing tournament poker for years. They are not necessarily millionaires like today's big tournament professionals, but they are more the grinder types who played many smaller and medium buyin events and lived a comfortable lifestyle that would in no way resemble what most people have today.The other thing to consider is that since the fields were so much smaller, the good and great players could cash and make final tables on a more regular basis becuase they didn't have to navigate through fields of eleventy billion players.

[GoStags92 0]

I actually, he really is an easy target. It's not that difficult to clown on him, you are right. However, I think I did a pretty decent job with the parody, lol.

I'm actually surprised that yours seems to be the only one. That blog was ripe for the pickin'!

[NonZeroPossibility 0]

I just wanted to say THANK YOU Daniel. great blog

[Balloon guy 158]

I don't know what to think of a double negative screen name. It has me conflicted

[KUPoker5 0]

I don't know what to think of a double negative screen name. It has me conflicted

Non-zero isn't a double negative. It just means a domain of every number but 0.

[rog 0]

This I find very interesting.Because in the days before poker existed (pre-2003...... little joke there, hehe! um.. sorry), in order to be a successful player, didn't you have to have an ability to play cash games. Like, was it even possible to get by on tournaments? And also, play all forms of poker, because NL Holdem wasn't played that much?I didn't play poker then, but I've heard that most of the top players hardly played tournaments anyway. It wasn't like today, where you could actually make loads of money from just tournaments. And Hellmuth was already an established name, and had been playing professionally for many years. So.. where did he make his money, pre-boom? (excluding the one win in 1989). Was he always a consistent loser in side games? I'm surprised he was able to continue playing, if he was.

thehendonmob.comAccording to the DB, Phil has 8.7M lifetime winnings with about 3.5 of that coming from 2003 to present. That means Phil made about 5 million dollars in tournament winnings prior to the poker boom of 2003. I dont think he needed to make much in the side games to pay the rent.

[JoeyJoJo 18]

Non-zero isn't a double negative. It just means a domain of every number but 0.

He was referring to mine.

[Balloon guy 158]

He was referring to mine.

Thought that was obvious