Phil Hellmuth(credit: wikipedia)
The Poker Brat isn’t ALL bad. Ever notice how much attention he gives his game? He really seems to care about every single hand he is in, sometimes to the point of being irritating… but you can’t ignore the guy’s record. Could there be a lesson there? Let’s find out.
It’s Poker After Dark and Phil Hellmuth is in yet another game. He’s made a small raise with an okay hand and hit mid pair with top kicker after the flop. He checked from under the gun and an opponent (Gavin Smith in this case) puts in a big bet.
Note that this is in the FIRST blind level and all players still have somewhere in the neighborhood of $20k in chips, so Phil could walk away from
this hand and not see a dent in his chips stack. But does he?
Are you kidding?
This is Phil Hellmuth, people. Phil immediately starts complaining about the situation he is in, recounting what everyone has done up to this point (“he called, he bet, she folded,”) and also what elements of their game from earlier (sometimes from entirely different games) may have bearing on the current situation (“all the time she calls with junk, and this time she has to have the nuts…”)
WHY, Phil, why? Why do you care if you are beat here, it is less than ONE percent of your chip stack. LET IT GO, MAN!
But he CAN’T let it go. That’s not the way he is wired. He HAS to care, to whine, to cajole, to complain, to wring his hands and call down thunder
and lightning.
And that’s the key to his success. Or at least, A key. He really does care about winning every hand of poker he plays. Once he makes the decision to be involved in a hand, he plays it like so very much is at stake, regardless of what is actually at stake.
With 11 WSOP bracelets to his credit, his attitude (though please, with less whining and being mean) may be worth emulating.
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