Phil Hellmuth has embarrassed himself with yet another childish meltdown during an appearance on PokerGO. The Poker Brat lost the plot after a series of frustrating pots, leading many to declare they are fed up with his behaviour.
Hellmuth’s tirades are pretty much a part of the live poker game at this point. Many think that we should tolerate these profanity-laden outbursts because of his standing in the game.
Now, of course there are few players in poker history who have the profile as Phil Hellmuth, but should that really make a difference to how he is treated?
Upswing Poker founder Doug Polk has put together a video where he talks about how the community is split between those who think it’s great to see personalities like this in poker while others think it is destructive and harmful.
Polk goes through some hands to show just what led to this latest outburst.
First up was Hellmuth with pocket kings on a board of 4♦ 8♦ J♠ 3♦ K♦ while Alan Keating lucked in with ace high turning into the nut flush.
Then he was up against Hustler Casino Live co-founder Ryan Feldman who had pocket queens to his ace-king.
Running it twice saw Feldlam scoop both runouts, setting the stage for the meltdown while Hellmuth ranted:
“Give me 30. Fucking morons running like this against me; it’s unbelievable. I think you’ve won the last five times you won both boards when we had ace-king versus queens. I really thought today was the day you were going to give it to me.”
Polk then points out that if anybody spoke to one of his customers at The Lodge Card Club in a manner like Hellmuth does so often, he would have them removed and banned.
He adds that the general profanity, both indirect and direct, is not becoming of one of poker’s biggest stars and something should always be done if those types of comments are made at the table.
And finally, there was the main blow up in all of this in what was another pretty much nothing hand.
What started as a standard all-in pre-flop confrontation with Hellmuth’s A♦ Q♣ versus Humboldt Mike’s J♠ J♥, ended in one of the most childish walk-offs from TV poker we’ve ever seen.
The board ran out A♣ 7♥ 9♠ 8♣ J♦ leaving the table in hysterics at Hellmuth’s bad luck on the river and Mike running around the table shouting “start the car.”
At this point, Hellmuth was clearly boiling but still said “nice hand” and tried to take it all in good grace, but the table just couldn’t stop teasing him.
And then it all went wrong when Mike got up again and started fist pump dancing around again.
Helluth suddenly let loose saying he couldn’t play with Mike anymore and was quitting the game before harassing Mike by saying he was more out of line than any other person at the table. Really?
He continues by saying he will never film with him again and then slams the expensive microphone hard onto the middle of the table, sending it bouncing across the room.
Polk ends by saying that he will continue to make these critical videos everytime Phil Hellmuth behaves like this. He calls it “unacceptable, totally uncalled for, a bad look for poker, and childish.”
Veronica Brill had her own take in the tweet below.
Watching phil hellmuth have another phil hellmuth blow up at this point feels like doing missionary again with someone I've been been doing missionary with for 20 years
Started out fun but now it's like "again? 🙄"— Veronica Brill (@Angry_Polak) August 1, 2024
