On 16-7-1964 Phil Hellmuth (nickname: The Poker Brat) was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He made his 20 million dollar fortune with World Series of Poker, Poker After Dark. The poker Player is married to Katherine Sanborn, his starsign is Cancer and he is now 56 years of age. Phil Hellmuth Facts & Wiki. The Tiger Woods of poker, Phil Ivey has won pretty much anything there is to win, apart from the WSOP Main Event. Phil Ivey has gambler’s blood running through his veins. Now considered to be one of the best poker players in the world this Southern California native moved to New Jersey when he was still a.

Phil Hellmuth is a poker champion, Poker Hall of Famer, and has a resume that 99.9% of poker pros would give anything to replicate. But is he the greatest poker player in history?

If you ask him, that answer is a confident, “yes.” The “Poker Brat” certainly doesn’t lack confidence in his game, although many poker pros believe it’s overconfidence. Some believe the game passed him by years ago and his value to the poker community these days is more of as a public figure than a poker player.

Hellmuth, however, disagrees. He still says that he’s the best in the game even against the modern day GTO pros. Daniel Negreanu, among others, laughed at that claim. In fact, Negreanu recently scolded Hellmuth for disrespecting the younger pros whom “Kid Poker” claims are superior players.

Matt Berkey and Christian Soto addressed Hellmuth’s greatness, or lack thereof, on the recent Solve for Why YouTube podcast.

The poker pros brought up a recent hand from High Stakes Poker in which Hellmuth folded ace-king to a three-bet raise by Tom Dwan, an overly aggressive player whose raises are rarely respected for that reason.

Hellmuth’s fold was strange given Dwan’s range is so wide and Phil’s hand so big. The fold was also incorrect because “durrrr” had a weak J-7 hand. Berkey and Soto criticized the play and used it as an example for how overrated Hellmuth is at poker compared to the top pros of today.

Phil Laak Poker Player

“This is the reason that people say Phil Hellmuth sucks,” Soto said of the horrible fold. “It’s not that they hate him, or whatever. But this doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does, though,” Berkey chimed in. “From a live perspective, I understand where he’s coming from. There are just spots where people are just way too tight and don’t possess bluffs.”

You can add Olivier Busquet, Justin Bonomo, Daniel Negreanu, and many others to the list of top pros who don’t have much respect for Hellmuth’s game anymore.

The resume is impeccable

Put aside what you think about Hellmuth’s game right now. Perhaps he isn’t up to par these days with Bonomo, Stephen Chidwick, and the other high roller crushers. That’s a matter of opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

But one thing that isn’t an opinion is the fact that Phil Hellmuth is the all-time WSOP bracelet record holder, and it’s not even close. The “Poker Brat” has 15 gold bracelets to his name, which includes a 1989 Main Event title. Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, and Doyle Brunson are tied for second place with 10.

Another fact is that few would argue against the WSOP being the most important live tournament series in the world. So, he’s won his titles in events that matter more than others.

Hellmuth isn’t just the all-time bracelet record holder. He’s also tops all-time in WSOP cashes (162) and has over $15 million in World Series of Poker earnings. There is no doubt that he is the greatest performer at the WSOP ever, and it’s not even close.

Does that make him the best overall poker player?

Whether you agree with it or not, poker players will always be judged throughout history by their performances in WSOP events. That’s not to say events such as the World Poker Tour or crushing high stakes cash games doesn’t matter. But the general poker audience will always consider the WSOP crushers the best players.

Does that mean Hellmuth is the best ever? No, it just means that he’ll always be considered one of the best ever by many poker fans because of his WSOP success.

With that said, Hellmuth’s greatness goes far beyond the WSOP. He has over $9 million in live tournament cashes outside of World Series of Poker events, and he ranks 21st all-time in overall earnings. If you take away all those WSOP cashes, he’d still rank in the top 100 all-time.

Hellmuth took down the 2005 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and finished runner-up to Mike Matusow in 2013. He’s also reached five WPT final tables, and has numerous other cashes around the world. So, he isn’t exactly chopped liver away from the Rio in Las Vegas.

But he lacks a solid online poker resume and he no longer dominates cash games against top competition. He might crush it against his wealthy famous friends in high-stakes home games that don’t allow many pros to play.

That just means he can beat the fish and doesn’t prove he’s capable of dominating top pros. It’s kind of like when an overrated college football team beats up on some directional schools in non-conference and then gets stomped when facing real competition later in the season.

Phil Hellmuth dominated the game during the 1990s and into the early 2000s. He was undeniably one of the three or four best players, if not the best, during that era. You’d have to be a fool or have an unhealthy hatred for the “Poker Brat” to disagree with that claim.

But not only is he no longer one of the best in the world at any form of poker, he isn’t the greatest all-time. Another Phil, in my opinion, is the G.O.A.T.

I’m talking about Phil Ivey. He is the best to ever play because no one has ever dominated an era quite like he did from 2004-2014, and he’s one of just a few players to crush it in live tournaments, online, and in the highest stakes cash games.

Ivey ranks second all-time in WSOP bracelets (10), has won more money online than anyone else (over $20 million on Full Tilt Poker), has over $21 million in live tournament cashes, and is one of the most feared high-stakes cash game players ever. No offense to Phil Hellmuth, who was a great pro for many years, but Ivey is the best all-time.

Featured image source: Flickr

Many people have heard “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers in their lifetimes. But few have ever heeded the wisdom within it, articularly the line, “You’ve got to know when to fold ‘em.”

Amateur real money poker players often see folding as a sign of weakness, and occasionally, it can be. But you can’t go guns blazing into every single hand, or it will catch up with you sooner rather than later. Even though it can hurt to do so, there are times when laying the cards down and walking away is the best strategy. It’s that whole thing about living to fight another day.

Folding to Perfection

All of this came into play in the most recent edition of High Stakes Poker, the hugely entertaining online revival that hosted perhaps its most memorable hand yet on the recent edition. First of all, there were the two players involved who made it quite momentous.

On one side, there was Phil Hellmuth, arguably the most well-known player in the game over the past two decades whose mouth-running antics can sometimes overshadow his undeniable skill.

On the other side was Doug Polk, whose own profile has risen massively in a relatively short time period. Polk is the head of the new breed of poker stars, ones who know how to brand themselves and use social media to increase the stature of their play.

And the heat behind him is as high as its ever been thanks to his recent conquest over long-time rival Daniel Negreanu in the so-called “Grudge Match of the Century.”

The Cards on the Table

The drama unfolded this past week on the PokerGo Network with the unflappable Gabe Kaplan making his invaluable commentary.

It involved one of those hands that can only take place in Texas Hold’em, where community cards can sometimes jumble the picture for players in a way that can make it almost impossible to see all the angles. But to Polk’s everlasting credit, he managed to do so and prevent what could have been a massive loss.

At this point, both Polk and Hellmuth has already drawn straights with two cards left to come, with Hellmuth having the more favorable high card. Both initially looked like they wanted to slow-play it by checking, but Bord forced the action by raising with his lonely pair of deuces.

Top 100 Poker Players

Polk check-raised to a $7,000 bet at this point, trying to suggest a good hand but not the monster he actually possessed.

That’s when Hellmuth went for the throat with an all-in raise of $97,200. That sent Bord scurrying for the hills and put Polk on the spot. It was a spot that he inhabited for about five minutes while trying to make a decision that most would have thought impossible.

Making the Right Call

Put yourself in Polk’s shoes at this point. The odds of flopping a straight, even when you have two hole cards that make that possible, sit at around 75 to 1. Knowing that, you have to believe that having made the straight puts you in charge of the hand.

Phil Collins Poker Player

Kaplan knew that as well, which is why he immediately started speculating that Polk had no choice but to call. The most common thought process would be to believe that Hellmuth had flopped three of a kind which, again, Kaplan quickly surmised.

A straight beats three of a kind, of course, so if Polk believed that’s where Hellmuth stood for sure, he would have called and taken his chances on Hellmuth not somehow drawing lucky into four of a kind or a full house.

But the size of Hellmuth’s bet immediately gave Polk major pause. Why would he be going all-in with only three of a kind? That’s the kind of move that somebody only makes when they know they can’t be beat.

It was at this point that Hellmuth appeared to hurt his cause by trying to talk Polk into calling. When Polk wondered aloud what Hellmuth might have to make such a bet, Hellmuth suggested he could have a nut-flush and straight draw or that he could have a pair of 10s as “blockers.”

With a pair of tens, it would be extremely difficult for Polk to draw a straight, if that what’s he needed to do, which, of course, he didn’t.

The other players at the table soon began speculating, even making side bets. Kaplan sounded audibly upset by this, as their actions discussing what was going on could have been seen as interfering with the thought process of the players involved. But Polk didn’t seem to be paying any attention, instead trying to stay focused on his brutal decision.

Listen to Kenny Rogers

Remember that line again: “You’ve got to know when to fold ‘em.” Put yourself in Polk’s shoes one more time. And now, imagine the courage it must have taken to fold his hand, which is what he did.

If he had folded, and Hellmuth was bluffing entirely, he would have been ridiculed for being outsmarted. It would have been worse yet if he had folded and Hellmuth was indeed going all-in with a set or a pair of blockers.

People would have lambasted him for his lack of faith in an all-but-unbeatable hand, and considering the high-profile nature of the situation, making a poker mistake like that could have stuck with Polk for years.

Hellmuth, on the other hand, decided to hide his cards once awarded the pot, which contained most of his own money anyway. This, he did, despite the protests of the players in the side bets who needed to know. One would guess those guys did make good once they watched the video online.

In any case, the hand gives you an indication of what a unique game poker can be. Praise is being showered on Polk for what ultimately turned out to be a losing hand. And Hellmuth is getting some criticism, not for how he played the hand but for his feeble attempts at Jedi mind-tricking Polk into calling, even as he took the pot.

Poker Player Phil Ivey Sued By Casino

In any case, you have to believe that Doug Polk not only heard the words of Kenny Rogers, but he also took them to heart. It made for about a 100-grand difference.

Phil Professional Poker Player

And for you, the amateur poker players, it’s a good lesson that might help you avoid the future heartache of losing a massive pot only because you didn’t have the courage to flick your cards away when the occasion called for it.