The Editor’s Blog — Appreciating The Genius Of Hellmuth

By Eric Raskin
August 4, 2008

I’ve met Phil Hellmuth several times, interviewed him a few times, even hung out with his parents once, and of course, I’ve watched him play hours upon hours of poker. And I still don’t quite know what to make of the guy. I can’t quite figure out where the shtick ends and the human being begins, and when he opens his mouth, I often find myself cringing over his social awkwardness while at the same time hanging on every word.

It took my wife all of about 30 seconds of watching him on TV to figure him out: “What a tool” was a her simple assessment. For me, it’s not that easy. Yes, he does come off as a tool most of the time. But he’s a tool who’s manipulating us all.

In any case, whatever direction the debate over his personality takes, there can be no debating this: The man is a sheer genius at the poker table. His dominance against elite players Ted Forrest and Chris Ferguson on last week’s special “Heads-Up Challenge” on Poker After Dark was all the proof you needed.

The common, clichéd knock on Hellmuth is that he only seems great when he’s picking on bad players, but surely nobody would label Forrest and Ferguson as such. Against both of them, Hellmuth was always a step ahead. “The Poker Brat” does his homework on his opponents, and always comes in with a game plan suited to not only the other man’s style of play, but also to how that other man perceives Hellmuth.

Phil’s call on the turn with third pair against Forrest, in the hand that ended their match, was utterly brilliant. I’d say at least 80 percent of all top pros would make the laydown in that spot, and another 15 percent would push all in and fail to bust Forrest. Few could make the flatcall, as Hellmuth did, and wait for the river to finish the job.

In his first match against Ferguson, Hellmuth got lucky to draw out by making two pair (fives and sixes) on the river against Chris’ pocket queens, but there was no luck involved in his all-in river raise. That was just a great read telling him he had the best hand and was up against a hand that would pay him off.

The rematch with “Jesus” was as one-sided as it gets. There’s no such thing as playing “perfect poker,” but from the hands NBC showed, this was damned close to perfection. Nothing Ferguson tried against Hellmuth worked; Phil always had an answer, and was always plotting his next move before seeing the next card.

The bottom line is, we can rag on Hellmuth all we want, especially when he makes an embarrassing mis-read, like his famous two-fisted chip shove with a dominated two pair against Barry Greenstein on High Stakes Poker a couple of years ago. But deep down, most of us wish we could understand No-Limit Hold ’Em strategy the way Hellmuth does. Not that his ego needs this stroking from me, but Phil, you deserve everyone’s respect at this point. If not as a person, then at least as a poker player.