Phil Hellmuth–it’s a name synonymous with many things: incessant whining, hate rants about Europeans, berating people by saying they can’t “spell the word poker”, segments during ESPN poker coverage doing shirtless yoga, and unrelenting, shameless self-promotion. He is clearly a man who knows no bounds, and earlier this week, reaffirmed the he was the same predictably absurd ol’ Hellmuth.
As the years go by at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, it seems as though Hellmuth keeps trying to constantly hurdle a bar of embarrassment he both sets on himself and is too stubborn to realize is even there with progressively grandiose and morbidly self-absorbed entrances through the Rio’s front door. On a graph of dignity over time, Hellmuth looks like a plummeting stock for humanity’s pride. Let’s take a look back at a timeline of Phil’s Main Event arrivals that would turn itself into a noose and kick out the chair if it had the chance.
- 2006 — Hellmuth shows up two hours late, giving people false hopes that he may actually not show up at all. The nine other people at his table are the real winners here, enjoying laughter and three-bets for two hours in his absence before the weight of his soul-crushing ego came and pissed on their parades.
- 2007 — Hellmuth attempts to arrive in his site-sponsored race car, only to hilariously crash it in the Rio parking lot and have his marvelous arrival postponed by two hours. He would later arrive in a limo, meeting up with 11 models for his entrance, one for each WSOP bracelet the “Poker Brat” has won throughout the years. But if all those models were with Phil, who was working the lunch shift at the Sapphire Gentleman’s Club?
- 2008 — How do you top crashing a race car? You dress up as General Patton, less the virtue and respect. The 11 stars on his fatigues represent his bracelets and 11 reasons why veterans in Iraq would rather have Hellmuth shielding them from insurgent gun fire than flak jackets.
- 2009 — So you wake up out of bed a year later, army greens hanging in your closet. You give your ad wizards a call and you reach what conclusion? The only way to beat disgracing the Armed Forces is to defecate on history books. Brought to the red carpet on the shoulders of four beefy men in Halloween-grade Roman costumes and dressed as Julius Caesar surrounded by tens of scantly clad women dressed in low-cut “period attire”, Phil makes way to his seat with drums and trumpets playing. Where’s Brutus when you need him?
- 2010 — So what diabolically ego-fluffing way does Hellmuth choose to enter at the turn of the decade? See for yourself below. SPOILER ALERT: Your hands will be holding your head as it shakes from left to right.
Shannon Elizabeth took to the felts for Day 1D of the World Series of Poker – Main Event. The $10,000 Texas Hold’em event is in the final day of first day action.
CarbonPoker qualifier, Michael Reed is on a tear at the World Series of Poker. After Day 1 of play for Michael, he’s sitting with 142,125 chips — good for 8th place overall.
Congratulations from the Carbon Team to FoxyUK and CookoeDFP, who have both given outstanding performances to reach the money in the No Limit Holdem WSOP event #54.
When you assemble 25 of the best CarbonPoker players in the world in one poker room for a freeroll and throw in our newest pro Shannon Elizabeth, you’re pretty well guaranteed a great time.
The 4th of July party CarbonPoker is throwing at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas just got a whole lot better.
Outside of his prop bet antics and his legendary appetite for the partying that his success as a rounder has afforded him, not much has been heard out of Gavin Smith in recent years. That all changed over the weekend, when Smith won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) $2,500 mixed hold’em event, beating out 570 players and taking home the $268,238 first prize.
So I’ve been in Las Vegas for a couple of weeks now, as I always am this time of year. But this year has been different, because I was never planning on being here for much more than the main event of the World Series of Poker. I had planned on being in pre-production on a film I’m set to direct, but we’ve had some delays with the financiers. So, instead of worrying day to day about where our money is to start pre-production, I decided I’d do what I always do in June and hit Las Vegas for the World Series.
All the WSOP officials who were panicking and ready to jump out of windows at the beginning because of low attendance can rest easy now. World Series of Poker attendance is up a reported 18% after the completion of 42 events.
Hellmuth has been playing like Ivey has had a gun to his head, and after winning his 8th bracelet, he practically does. The impending doom of the Ivey Express is bearing down on Hellmuth’s spot atop the coveted all-time bracelet leaderboard. So what does Hellmuth go and do? He makes his 42nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table.
