Phil Hellmuth Needled for Not Playing a Hand in 'Like Seven Hours'
Phil Hellmuth couldn't hit a hand and struggled to find a hand to even play during his appearance on the No Gamble, No Future PokerGO livestream, and his opponents made sure to let him know he played tight.
The "Poker Brat" didn't do much to dispell the notion that he often nits it up in cash games. But he also didn't hit many hands, although he did fold the best hand a few times when facing aggression.
Hellmuth, one of the greatest tournament players ever, faced off against an experienced table that included Matt Berkey, Sam Kiki (aka "Senor Tilt"), and David Benyamine. But things didn't exactly go well for the poker legend.
Poker Brat's Stack Grinds Down
Hellmuth sat down in the $200/$400 no-limit hold'em cash game 90 minutes into the stream on Sunday with $50,000 worth of Aria casino chips at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.
That stack would slowly bleed down as he couldn't win any meaningful pots. He also folded to an all-in bet after three-betting preflop with a middling pocket pair to Kiki's ace-queen in one hand. Before long, the 17-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner was down to just $8,300, and he finally found a hand to play past the flop.
Gaston, who had over $140,000 in his stack, raised the straddle to $2,000 with A♠10♥. Hellmuth, the straddle, moved all in with K♠K♦, to which his opponent called.
Hellmuth had a shot to double up and begin a comeback run, right up until the A♥ appeared on the flop. The 1989 world champion would rebuy another $50,000. But the second bullet didn't go well for him either. He'd end up losing about half that buy-in before the livestream concluded, and his opponents made sure to let him know about his tight play.
"Is that a record in the PokerGO Studio? Not one hand played in seven hours?" Kiki joked as the stream ended, although Hellmuth only played for about five hours.
"How about I never played a 50k pot," Hellmuth responded. "You guys were f*****g throwing money all over the place."
"Phil, I'm telling you this as your friend, this is hilarious. You didn't play a hand in like seven hours," Kiki fired back.
"To be fair, he played a bunch of hands, he just never saw a flop," Berkey piled on with the needle. "It's a very important aspect of a five-card game."
It wasn't the first time Hellmuth was razzed over tight play on No Gamble, No Future. Co-hosts Brent Hanks and Jeff Platt took shots at the Poker Brat repeatedly for folding too frequently in September during a Season 7 episode.
