So after declaring last year that he wouldn't miss it for the next 20 years he so conveniently misses it this year due to a spur of the moment trip to Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands.

So here's my question?

If you are going to build a rep as the (self)proclaimed best at what you do then shouldn't it only make sense to play at the highest levels, competing w/ the best in your field, consistently?

It doesn't make sense, to me anyway, to do the former but not the latter. It's the equivalent of someone on the level of Serena Williams or Tiger Woods stepping down to play on a pro-am level of their respective sports.

If you're the best then play the best and beat the best. If you can't then get better (ala Negreanu upping his skillset w/ coaches for the high roller stuff).

Don't resort to playing less worthy opponents then declare yourself the best ever b/c your trophy count is getting bigger.

TL;DR: I think Hellmuth can't consistently compete w/ his peers.

The case is there to be made. If I'm wrong then I will gladly accept that and go on.

It took you this long to figure out he's pretty bad?

i doubt he really believes he's the best in today's game, just a character he's played upto. idk he might genuinely think he is

To be fair, it wasn’t a ‘spur of the moment’ trip.
He mentioned he was heading off there a few weeks ago in an interview.

I guess as one ages with a lot of money in the bank it's easier to be around llamas and turtles than young hungry card sharks.

He always wanted to pretend he was a marine biologist.

I am sure he knows he isn't +EV in the PPC. He is a good tournament player and probably massively +EV in other limit and mixed game MTTs and large field NL MTTs.

So he's going to Peru most likely to ingest some Ayahuasca and reflect on his game.
Will either come back as the undisputed end boss or quit forever.

No, his friend thought marine biologist was right up his alley. But he didn't really know Phil's alleys like Phil does.

Phil always wanted to pretend he was an architect.

no one takes him seriously anymore and he knows it

Not sure if this is a troll or not. Obviously not a top tier player...and he is not a great cash game player against the GTO guys...but he is consistently cashing year after year after year at the WSOP. He is unconventional, and makes poor decisions occasionally...but i would not consider him "bad".

And if the community as a whole considers him "bad"....then I'd love to be as bad as he is

He is just dodging bullets.

Hellmuth's WSOP stats: 1st all-time with 15 bracelets, 4th all-time with 145 cashes, 5th all-time money with $14.6M.

If that is "pretty bad", I'd love to know your definition of good.

Who cares?

There's a lot of poker players who used to be good, but are awful today.

He wasn’t able to sell 90% of himself.

Damn clickbait, I misread "ships".

Bracelet in 2015 and 2018. I guess that is "used to be good"?

You know, it's funny. I always hear Michael Jordan referred to as the greatest of all time, yet I can't find him anywhere on the 2018-19 NBA leaders. Hasn't been in an NBA All-Star Game since 2003. Clearly must not be anywhere as good as people say he is.



In Hellmuth's defense – something I don't come to very often – he only self-proclaims as the best NLHE tournament player in the world. No-limit is only one eighth of the PPC, so his absence is not inconsistent with his claim.

If he dodged this event every year, then yeah, you'd have a gripe. But skipping out once? Put a slice of cheese on that nothingburger.

Yes, this is your question.

Oh, you have another question.

I don't think he's doing a lot of rep building any more, as he can ride his WSOP bracelet total for a long time, but even if he is, a spur of the moment trip to Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands sounds like a pretty awesome thing to do instead of playing a tournament, and I don't think it's going to hurt his reputation a whole lot.

You didn't mention a latter, but I guess you mean "playing less worthy opponents"? If that's what he's doing, and is what he wants to do, I don't know why this doesn't make sense. It might not be what you would choose to do, but playing tournaments he wants to while travelling the world sounds like a pretty awesome life to me. It not being what you or anyone else would choose to do is completely independent from it making sense.

There is a very good Where's Waldo spoof to be done with that iconic image.

OP yet another example of why new threads shouldn't be created by "Posts:1".

Other forum message boards require 100+ posts before you're able to create a new thread, I'd support that here