Phil Hellmuth has been spewing off some stacks to his billionaire friend Chamath Palihapitiya. The pair dueled it out on Palihapitiya’s private jet for a while leaving Hellmuth down almost $30,000.
Amazingly the Poker Brat managed to keep some good grace for a change, and even tweeted how happy he was for his buddy to have got the better of him.
Moffet Field to Vegas, friends jet, high stakes Chinese poker (Pineapple version) all the way!! #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/xUPyg4SImy
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) January 9, 2020
The length of the flight wasn’t specified but being less than 400 miles it looks like Hellmuth got royally stuffed by Palihapitiya in double quick time.
Phil Hellmuth Donks Off in Chinese Poker
The game of choice for the trip was Chinese poker – Hellmuth’s favourite pineapple version. And it didn’t take long before the stacks started spewing.
Down $9,800 already, hitting turbulence in the air. Game moved to the floor! pic.twitter.com/e9TUudGFMw
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) January 9, 2020
No doubt there was some blaming the turbulence for such a bad start to the match.
Lost $29,200 to my best friend @Chamath, but I’m really happy for him! Great guy. Welcome to 2020 C! #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/p8NmlyWr15
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) January 9, 2020
Either way, it looks like that was the easiest $30,000 that Palihapitiya ever won. The chairman of Virgin Galactic and CEO of Social Capital is a smart guy and will no doubt be inviting Hellmuth to catch another lift home on his private jet.
Does Everyone on Social Media Abuse Phil Hellmuth?
Dropping $30k to an amateur was just the beginning of people poking fun at Phil Hellmuth. This is standard poker news now.
Hellmuth posted on Twitter that he had been rubbing shoulders with high society yet again after a lunch appointment with John Deutch, a former CIA director, Dept Secretary of Defense, and now a professor at MIT.
Some random follower took the post as an opportunity to poke fun at Hellmuth about offering staking packages at 1.7x markup. This is considered insanely high, even for somebody who has won as much as he has.
The resulting spat ended up with Hellmuth’s fans backing him no matter how many facts were placed in front of their faces. One commentator pointed out that when he backed Hellmuth he doubled his investment.
Well, at https://t.co/1GRCr8cpxx, the only place I sell action, I’ve won the customers $200,000, 11 out of 13 packages won. Broke even once. Lost one time only, for a mere $10,000, won like $800,000 minimum. Maybe check your facts before you come at me? https://t.co/9llKiXs9GF
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) January 14, 2020
“So did Bernie Madoff for some” joked another poster, referring to the famous Wall Street scammer serving life in prison.
Deserved?
The arguments were polarised, as expected. Hellmuth has his cult followers, and some hate him whatever.
“Haha telling the GOAT @phil_hellmuth that he’s negative ROI? Wow haha I think this dude is a bit out of line.”
This brings up an interesting point though. Phil Hellmuth plays a lot of tournaments, especially at the World Series of Poker chasing bracelets regardless of the cost or schedule. What could his true ROI% be?
It’s doubtful he could ever be down, but a lot of people would be shocked by what his live tournament winnings figure drops down to once all the buy ins have been subtracted.
While it is impossible to ever know anybody’s true ROI, until the HendonMob start tracking entries, Phil Hellmuth definitely looks to take the worst of the abuse out of the big names.
The aggressive poster continued by mentioning a specific hand where J5o was played on TV. As if this was some kind of proof that Hellmuth treats his backer’s investment with disdain.
Hellmuth responded that it’s unreasonable to think that he wouldn’t butcher a few hands over a three-day filming schedule for eight hours each day.
For at least a decade Phil hellmuth has been the butt of many jokes by poker players. It now looks certain that this behaviour will remain the norm until he retires from the game.
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