Sorry if this has been already covered in the thread, too lazy to read back, but anyone have any insight to Viffers comments about being down a mega in London?

He then goes on about having to sell all his stuff.

Did he get buried in private cash games during the WSOPE? that's my best guess.

Matusow and Hellmuth are bizarre. They sit there telling everyone constantly exactly how they are going to play, then they play exactly like that and are surprised it doesn't work. They also feel the need to tell everyone what they had after every hand.

It's the kind of thing I would expect at a $40 buy in live tourny or something. They're literally playing/acting as dumb as possible constantly, from a poker perspective.

I really think that Matusow hangs out with Hellmuth so much that it's hurting Mike's game.

+1

this

also when there is an unlucky set up or someone sucked out and stuff like that (pretty standard situations) they cant belive it and act like its so unreal. i mean, these are kind of hands u see every day as a professional pokerplayer. its like they played 100 hands in their life and dont know the swings of poker.

but i musst say since hellmuth is gone the new episodes arent half that much entertaining.

Agreed, as a slight hijack all the online players on HSP were shocked that DN has never gotten a royal flush.

All these live players would benefit a bunch from just 4-tabling whatever goofball stakes for a few hours a day, playing ABC, just to see a ton of hands and get a feel for the situations that come up over and over.

Anyone watch the Director's Cut? The two best lines belonged to Hellmuth, IMO:

"All of the very best NLHE players in the world are capable of playing very, very tight."

and,

"Now I know what he has when he's bluffing."

A FOUR BARREL BLUFF imo

Eh, I'm not gonna bother. There's already overwhelming evidence that the guy's delusional, I don't need to hear any more of his ramblings.

Viffers face tilts me

Hellmuth on Director's Cut: "There aren't 7 players in the world who are better than me in a NL cash game where we actually sit down and look at each other."

in the 10-10 vs. 10-7s hand, Brandon Adams goes into extreme detail as to why he played it the way he did...i.e. what he thought Phil may have based upon his call of Matusow's raise, why he 4bet Adams, etc. Phil explains everything based on what Adams actually had, i.e. after he showed the bluff. There was no mention of his thinking preflop, what BA might have, why he'd merely call instead of ship it, etc. The only thing he mentions of his preflop thinking is, "I had him dead to rights, I had him in my sights".

I think it was a close tie to whom the worst player was between Matasow and Hellmuth.

Funny how Helmuth talking about a flush draw like its the dead nuts.
Also funny how Mattusow knows that BA had a full house or air. That is an impressive read after someone bets every street, you are the best Mike!!

Re the above two posts, at least Matusow understands the concept of polarization. Hellmuth would probably just stare at you blankly if you started trying to explain the idea.

Regarding the worst player at the table, I really don't think it's close.

Seems like AA/KK would be in BA's range there too.

Anyways, I can't imagine how anyone gets good at poker playing live only. It's terribly slow, you never get enough hands to have a good database, standard deviation just dominates everything, self delusions prevail because detailed statistics are lacking, and everytime you play a hand you have to listen to a bunch of ******ed opinions about it.

I highly respect anyone who actually is good at poker and did so throguh playing live exclusively. Because that must take some serious hard work and mental filtering.

I mean, I have a casino close by, and home games invite me often. 10 minutes to get ready, a 20 minute drive, and there isn't necessairily a seat ready. Even if there is, if I play for 4 hours, I get 100 hands, then spend 30 minutes going home, for a grand total of 100 hands in 5 hours if I'm very lucky.

I could fire up rush poker and get 100 hands before 5 minutes are up....5 hours nets about 6000 hands. Hilarious difference.

Carnivore...I think playing live every once in a while is good for my game. You can tend to get kinda robotic playing online. Not thinking that hard about ranges, dynamics, etc all the time. Obviously that's not always the case when you're playing your A game, but a lot of the time you aren't playing your A game.

Live you have all the time in the world, either when you are involved in a hand or not to think about all the hand combinations that are possible, how this particular player plays, how to exploit that. You also spend a lot of time between hands, thinking about where you money is coming at from this particular table, peoples state of mind, etc. I think it can get you back to thinking about all the things you should be thinking about every hand, live or online.

I play 200nl online, and played live 1/2 last night. It's fun every once and awhile to play 200nl at a 5c/10c level.

He preflop thinking seems to be "OMG, I have tens!" If BA had JJ, Phil would just be complaining about how unlucky he was, hell he'd probably call him an idiot putting that much in with only JJ.

This.

"He got extremely lucky and flopped a flush draw." Uhh....doesn't pocket 10s face a flop of overcards something like 70% of the time? So, any flop w/ AKQJ and Brandon again gets "extremely lucky". Amazing how a Harvard professor who put several levels of thinking into the process was able to rape the "best in the world" here.

I agree with everything passaman has said. The thing is i don't think Hellmuth is being deliberatly coy. If he had some logical thinking regarding the hands he'd be the first to blurt it out trying to convince people (and himself) of how good he is.

He's so lol. Also someone needs to sit down with him and explain to him the concept of equity in the pot. Just because you're a favourite in the hand doesn't mean you "deserve" 100% and any outdraw is stealing from the Philly boy. I mean wtf, 20+ years and still whining. Still love watching him though just for comic value.

edit:BA commentary on the hand is excellent, PH is barely in that section as he's saying nothing that makes any sense. "my intincts...., i knew he was weak..., he just decided to go crazy..."

Also someone should take clips everytime PH mentions the word lucky about a hand he's been in and splice them altogether for a youtube montage. If i knew how to do this i'd do it myself. Any tips. (i'm loltarded at such things btw)

BA got it "he's lucky he flopped a flush draw", talking about Phil Ivey on the recent HSP "he's been incredibly lucky against me for years and when i have my day against him i'll beat him for 1 maybe 2 million" (yes Phil, of course you will, lol). Sounds like a broken record.

Last week, Phillips replaced Hellmuth after King of the Poker Douches stormed off the set. Once Dennis sat down I noticed he had a pea-sized thing growing out of his eye right over the left tear duct.

Whenever the camera came back on him I couldn't stop staring at his eye and wondering what it was; did it hurt; if he knew it was there, etc. I felt like Austin Powers and instead of yelling "MOLE!!" I wanted to point at the TV and shout "EYE!!"

So I'm wondering if anyone else noticed it and if you know what it is?

EYE!!!!!!!!!

yeah i noticed this also. maybe its a stye or something? looked gross whatever it was

I wanted to reach into the TV and pop it with a pin.

uhh gross.

With Jesus, Hellmuth, and Phillips maybe PAD was trying "Gross Facial Growths Week".