Hellmuth doubles....rats!

[chrisjp]

Another interesting hand...pokernews

Brandon Cantu raised to 42,000 from the button. As Cantu announced he was raising, Phil Hellmuth already was pulling back his small blind, essentially indicating his intention to call. He did call, the big blind folded, and Hellmuth said he was checking in the dark on the flop.

The flop came AcQc2s. Cantu bet 40,000, and Hellmuth called. The turn was the Jh. Hellmuth checked, Cantu bet 100,000, and Hellmuth instacalled.

The river was the 2c. Hellmuth paused a beat, then tapped the table indicating his check. Cantu announced "All in," and Hellmuth called immediately, turning over Jc8c for the club flush. Cantu mucked.

"That's why I throw it away, boys!" crowed Hellmuth, referring to the recent hand in which he let go a hand where he would have to call all in <on the flop where he had flush draw, straight draw, and two overs>. "That's why!"

Hellmuth is now up to 718,000, while Cantu still has 1.7 million.

[poker_Elmo]

Rats?

Hellmuth fascinates me so much I don''t want him to bust. His entertainment value outweighs his obnoxiousness to me.

My new favorite Hellmuth line came after he busted from the $5K PLO with rebuy tourney. This is the event that OMGClayAiken won and had Benjamine, Chan, Negraneu, etc.

He was saying how well he played - saying he was clearly the best player. He said something like: "I was clearly the best player, the other players, they were learning from me while we were playing".

[Scooby_Snacks]

Here is the hand he laid down:

On a board of 6h, 5d, 4d, Phil Hellmuth was involved in a three-way pot with Felix Osterland and Barry Leventhal. Hellmuth checked from middle position and Leventhal moved all in for 399,000.

Leventhal said, "If I lose, I'm gonna go to the buffet."

There was some additional chit-chat but Osterland eventually folded and the action was on Phil Hellmuth.

"I know you got something," said Hellmuth.

"I got a bluff," replied Leventhal.

After some additonal back-and-forth between the two men, Hellmuth eventually folded Qd, 7d face up.

"Wow! How can you fold that?" asked David Saab from a nearby table.

The table encouraged Leventhal to show but he eventually mucked face down.

Thoughts on his fold?

[chrisjp]

I thought it was a good fold, plus the idiot villain jabbering away with Hellmuth must have also aided him.

Yeah, I'm rooting against Hellmuth but I must admit I'd love to see all his hole cards at the final table. I'd pay for that one.

Plus if he makes the FT that will be huge for poker, just huge. OK I hope he comes in 2nd. No third....it would be too intense for little old me if he got to heads up.

Chris

[ciaran]

We need more info, I think, to know if Hellmuth's fold is good. He's ahead of AA, even including the , for instance, and he's never worse than a 60-40 dog. It seems like any pot where a bet of 399K all-in isn't a huge overbet is giving Phil more than enough odds to call.

That's kind of standard for him though, isn't it? Making folds of flippish hands when he's just getting too good a price for it to really be correct.

[emmapeel]

Hellmuth has been boasting about this strategy for years, it seems a bit odd that a great poker player will let everyone know how he is planning to play, there has got to be more to it than that. Ideally you would be telling people about a certain strategy to disguise how you really play.

I saw another hand with Cantu involved and it suggested that he might be the laggy type. I wonder if Hellmuth would have called him down with just top pair.

Hellmuths strategy does sound a bit odd, the one he professes to play that is. It requires actually getting good hands which won't happen too often. Maybe it is good in the ME where you have plenty of time but I'm sure it is bad for faster tournaments.

I wonder what makes Hellmuth so successful. I'm going to guess that he has awesome reading skills against weaker opponents.

EP

[emmapeel]

Maybe we can get Hellmuth to post some of his hands here.

We can just mention how every player here thinks he is gods gift to poker and also open up a special column dedicated to Hellmuth praise. That should do it.

EP

[artistic2]