Thoughts on Phil Hellmuth Jr

Dennis187 · Nov 03,2004, 06:18 PM

Hello everyone once again,

This time the discussion is on Phil Hellmuth Jr. My last post was about Greg Raymer and the opinions on his play from WSOP 04 however this time it is on a different subject.

Phil Hellmuth. He is known as a cry baby, a whiner, a man who cannot take a bad beat and just be quiet about it. A man that was quoted as saying...

"I guess if there wasnt any luck involved, I would win every tournament" from WSOP 04

Putting aside all of his crying and whinning, what do you all think about his play? I bought his book "Play poker like the pros" and was reading his strategy on NL Holdem. It seems that he believes you should push it all in on like every really good starting hand. No trapping, no nothing. I could interperet this wrong, however if I am right the problem is this. If you are waiting for really good starting hands and then pushing it all in everytime, players are going to pick up on it and fast. I dont care how slow or weak a player you are... you just cannot miss it. LOL. So if this is the strategy he is using, which I cannot believe... however I also cannot say he isnt because I havent seen him play that much... but if it IS the strategy that he is using... man one would wonder how in the world he won those 9 WSOP bracelets.

Get back to me, looking forward too all your responses especially... Scotty, all_aces and Scharf.

peteski · Nov 04,2004, 01:19 AM

This is not the impression I got from reading the NL holdem portion of the book. He said you can almost always justify moving all in with AA, KK, QQ, and AK, but I don't think he meant that you should just push it all in right away. In fact, one of the sections in this chapter is titled, "The "Bet It All" Strategy for NLH--Yuck!" I got the distinct impression that he doesn't like pushing it all in, unless he has to. I think he said he likes a pot-sized raise initially. He talked about trapping, but it did seem like he was a little reluctant to do this, and it seems hard to blame him. With other hands like JJ, TT, 99, he suggested putting in a standard raise, allowing him to fold if someone makes a big reraise. With other hands, I'm pretty sure he suggested just calling and trying to see a flop.

So, I don't think he suggests the push it all in strategy in his book. However, I think this is moot anyway, because I don't think he uses the NL Holdem strategy he outlines in his book for tournaments. The strategy he suggests in his book is meant for the amateur player and is also meant for NL Holdem cash games. In tournaments, I presume he plays other hands.

You are right I think, that the push it all in strategy, would not be a wise one.