Phil Hellmuth cements his status as the tournament GOAT
https://twitter.com/pokergo/status/15074...
If it wasn't for luck he'd win every one
Yabbut his personality is "narcissistic piece of ****."
Yeah, but just being himself, he probably blows up twice a session at some awful play by a 1/2 style player playing 50/100. They pay for the story of Hellmuth calling them or someone at the table a moron.
Then he probably spends a lot of the session telling stories of old time and TV pros, Brunson, Moss, Amarillo Slim, Ungar, the Binions, Matusow, Flack, etc. You feel like you are friends with him. He natural plays a style that doesn't look that different from the others at the table. Then he probably has a higher VPIP than he would normally, to take advantage of bad play, and to fit in.
No one would invite some GTO pro, who act like a computer, doesn't say anything, etc. to their private game, no matter if he might objectively be a better player.
this spoils the above link:
Spoiler
i like how he tank calls with AJs and admits he knew Gus shoved blind.
He has a huge edge in these tournaments for sure.
Some of it comes from everyone at his table just wanting to play hands with him.
In cash games when he plays he almost expects people at his table to just donate a stack to him.
I read one of his books 17 years ago and he said he charged 25k for appearances.
He tweeted once what he charges to invest in startups. Interesting but not going to search for it.
Still a bargain compared to what Paris & KimK charged for party appearances.
Yeah, that is probably why he stopped grinding tournaments in 2003. He could make more being a poker celebrity from private cash games and maybe appearance / speaking fees.
I don't think he could make that much in public cash games. He never was a good cash game player. However, he could do very well grinding tournaments. He has all these wins and top 5 finishes in $1K-3K WSOP events. He clearly has a huge ROI at that level, but can probably make at least as much on average at $10Ks, etc.
It used
Well, in the last three years he has 12/3462, 15/486, 48/2317, 23/246 (LHE6), 53/1544, 9/550, 19/1417, 1/642, 14/99 (50K), 11/568, 47/6076, 38/573(8H), 2/1359, cashes in holdem events, some online, turbo, bounty, etc.
Just a lot more players in general and good ones in particular.
Interestingly, only five of his 122 HE cashes (one bracelet) are in PLHE, the last in 2004; I think that’s an easy one to figure out.
He has 93 cashes in non-HE events. His first five cashes were in Stud8, ME, PLO, A-5, ME.
In any event, it is difficult to plausibly argue that Helmuth is the greatest of all time at poker tournaments in a world that contains Stephen Chidwick, Adrian Mateos, Ike Haxton, the Foxens, Niklas Astedt, and Artur Martirosyan.
All great players (though Ms. Foxen is indefinitely suspended from the discussion), but do they have significant cashes in non-HE events. Phil has 93/215.
Hellmuth has 1st for about $800K in a 2023 WSOP NLHE and 2nd for $370K in a 2022 $3K WSOP NLHE plus 1st for $200K+ in a USPO $10K NLHE. So it is safe to say he is hugely $ROI+ in NLHE tournaments in the last few years.
It isn't totally clear that those names mentioned are better tournament players currently than Hellmuth. They mostly beat super high rollers, which Hellmuth doesn't play. However, Hellmuth has a huge ROI in NLHE tournaments, considering particularly that he doesn't play many tournaments. I might pay more for shares of Hellmuth in say the WSOP ME than those others. Then Hellmuth plays all games. Most of those others don't play the PPC, etc.
