Do they really think that this will stop him ? I bet he'll praise allegiance to the Many-Faced God.

He'll play it again once he buys a new account.

And that's the problem with these poker tournaments in general. Someone brought it up earlier, if Phil Hellmuth did that do you think he would be banned for life? How about other famous poker players. There is so much room for playing favorites in these situations it makes me sick.

Hellmuth could tear 5 different pairs of cards and they'd give him a 1 or 2 round penalty and the floor man would probably buy him lunch while he waits.

So true, floor would probably tell Phil how good of a warriors fan he is and how he's held over other warriors fan for a long time now. #smedium

It's true. When Hellmuth does it it's entertainment.

Man this is so unfair, the cards can tear Hellmuth as many times as they want without any kind of consequences.

Played with him several times & he was always a huge tool.

To play devil's advocate, I'd say that Hellmuth (generally) knows where to draw the line, so wouldn't get himself into this situation in the first place. His acting up is entertaining to a lot of players at the WSOP, and watching on TV. He knows that, and it's part of his brand.

That certainly doesn't mean I think he should get any lesser penalty when he does cross the line.

but this is how it works ... lets say you own some restaurant and there's a famous guy, who comes regularly and ppl start to associate your restaurant with this guy. of course he can get away with far more stuff, than average joe. besides that, as some ppl itt mentioned, there's prolly a back story to this.

also if i'm not wrong, those life long bans are discussable to a later point

The WSOP, despite it's claims as providing a level playing field to all the players, has demonstrated it's favoritism of pros by allowing Mr. Hellmuth to abuse players at his whim and never enforcing a penalty against him. If any amateur treated one of their cherished pros to a torrent of repeated insults such as "idiot" and "loser" we'd quickly be removed from the tournament.

And his statements that he is being cheated, insinuating the dealer is somehow involved ("what's going on here?") at times borders on slander.

The man-boy is a menace.

But a great poker player!

Great point. That's why myself and lots of other friends of mine who used to love playing tournaments have had enough. We stayed 4 days and really couldn't wait to leave by the end. A few years ago I would probably stay for 10 days to 2 weeks and be angry when I was leaving. There is such a difference in blatant favoritism that the wsop gives it's 'famous' players that they don't give the avg guy it makes me sick. This card ripping situation can be considered 1 of many many times that you know other people would get a slap on the wrist(if that).

Can you imagine if random guy John Doe would scream and yell and insult players left and right and berate hard working dealers like Phil Hellmuth does and has? He'd be banned so fast his head would spin. Phil probably gets a 1 on 1 meeting with Jack Effel at a fancy Italian joint and Jack picks up the check and bills the wsop.

your argument is total bs. Helmuth has participated in over 20 WSOPs and has never done anything like this so it is stupid to even bring the possibility up to support your comparison. The only problem here is this guys jerk behavior, thats it.

There are thousands of people eliminated each day at the wsop. Having any other policy other than a ban for this action would be chaos. Saw the post about some guy last year getting brief timeout...that was the wrong ruling not this one. Can you imagine if this became acceptable way of people showing their frustration busting from tournaments?

Attention remaining players. We are now hand for hand and deck for deck.

FYP

Total BS? Keep living in la la land, must be nice. In my opinion he has done far worse than tearing up a couple of cheap ass cards. He berates dealers, players, curses at them, intimidates people and that's just for starters. If any regular player did that he'd have been banned yesterday. Get a friggin clue.

Regular players get away with all that, all the time. While I agree some of that stuff is probably worse than messing up some cards, in the eyes of the WSOP it's not.

Like I said, Hellmuth knows where the line is, and will act up as much as he can get away with as it's good exposure for him. He's not stupid though, which is why you rarely see him pulling any stuff the WSOP will punish severely.

It is reasonable to forgive a single instance of childish temper, but this guy has proven himself to be a self-important tool on numerous occasions. I see no downside for the poker community in surgically removing him.

Is being a self-important tool now a bannable offense? That's going to be hard to enforce.

There might be previous issues that haven't been pointed out here, but a lifetime ban (as opposed to, say, the rest of this year's Series) for a single incident that doesn't involve cheating or violence seems oddly severe.

Hellmuth should have been barred for life years ago.

What about all the entitled pros who refused to take selfies with your wife? That's worse than yelling at dealers in your book, right?

In before EastCoastBallaWife starts posting about her horrible WSOP experience..

FWIW, there's a difference between somebodys antics being good for business and somebody who is just a tool.

What about ******** the tourney director's wife?

Most folks giggle like little girls if they get berated by Hellmuth. It is a goal to strive for and the biggest thrill of your poker life.

tell us more about how it (falsely) makes you sick.
does this meaningless stuff make you physically ill?
tell us more about you have 'had it' with 'these' tournaments blah blah blah