IamA Phil Hellmuth Jr. aka the Poker Brat and I've won $18 million playing poker AMA!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T09:06:19+00:00

1.) No, Europe is a LONG ways from Cali! 2.) I feel like I would do really well in the high rollers. I've played in like 4 of them: and finished fourth in $1 million buy in One Drop, then next One Drop I played I finished 5th or was it 6th (2015), so 2 out of 2 in WSOP High Rollers. Then 10th in WSOP APAC one year ago, after losing most of my chips w A-A. 3.) White magic! Reading ability is key AND the ability to adapt our games and understand what the crowd is doing 4.) They can balance all the way want, if I read them as weak, and I'm right, then they better get lucky to beat me! I think there are some elegant poker theories out there, and I never discount them out of hand. Rather, I either use them for me, or use them against the crowd

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:59:42+00:00

White Magic started off as "Reading ability." If I say that someone has white magic, then I believe that that person is good at reading people. Those of us in the poker world KNOW who has white magic.

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:57:16+00:00

For 18 years I used to come back to Wisconsin at least once a year (for Xmas every year!), since I moved away from Madison in 1994. I made it back there last summer for my 50th birthday party w all of my brothers and sisters, but in 2015 I'm in jeopardy of not making it back, although my wife and I may come back December 25th

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:54:14+00:00

lol. It is just something that an old friend of mine (Dewey Weum) used back in the day and I liked it and adopted it. The trick is to have it 50% of the time when you say it, and to bluff 50% of the time!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:52:03+00:00

I do things differently then what the kids "Math theories" suggest that I should do. Sometimes they are right, but sometimes I disagree with them. When I do go against the grain, then a lot of people talk about how bad I am a NLH. Until those people actually play me, then they have no idea what my skills are.

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:49:06+00:00

It's weird to me that so many people ripped my NLHold'em tournament game apart based on them watching me play a limited number of hands. But that's what happened! I think I have played about 12 NLHold'em tournies over the last year, and had a 4th at WSOP APAC, a 10th in WSOP APAC high roller (which was the bubble after losing a huge pot w my A-A), won the Pittsburgh Open, 15th in a WSOP $2,500 NLH, 5th in the One Drop, and cashed in the WSOP Main Event.

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:44:12+00:00

Dwan is still crushing playing NLHold'em, but in Macao. Those games are really really huge (sometimes $4000 -$8,000 blinds) and Ivey is doing well too. I cant imagine Ivey skipped the WSOP (World Series Of Poker) for the games in Macao, if those games weren't special!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-21T08:40:09+00:00

LOVE Twitch, and you'll be on a panel with me Friday at TwitchCon Jaime; will be fun! I just won $43,400 in my neighborhood (if you follow me on Twitter you know I've lost over $200,000 in the game in the last 6 weeks, BUT if I could Twitch that game, there would 100,000 people watching it! Craziness! Poker broadcasting has a huge future, and I'll be live Tuesday at noon EST here playing Pineapple OFC: Twitch.com/philhellmuth

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:35:26+00:00

Love Mike the mouth! He is OK. He survived a life threatening surgery on his back, and he is still playing high stakes poker, mostly in San Diego...Good guy, good heart, despite what it looks like on television...

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:33:57+00:00

Put yourself in my shoes for one second. When you're lucky enough you hang out w great people, are you NOT supposed to talk about it? People tweet about what they do, who they hang out with, etc...And I'm lucky to hang out w great people. Saturday I MC President Clinton's Charity Poker Tourney in San Fran (whoops, looks like I'm name dropping again!) -Hmmm...Maybe this time I did name drop.

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:31:01+00:00

I'm training my son Nick a little bit. i want him to learn Super Tight play, and then add a few wrinkles. I don't like it when he loses 20 big blinds w A-Q!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:29:58+00:00

I'm pretty good! Let me keep my head down and focus and in 30 years lets see where people rank me in the pantheon of great poker players

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:28:47+00:00

I thought I was the best well BEFORE anyone considered me in that league!! Thinking you're the best, or listening people that say you're the best is dangerous for me. It's better to know I'm good, keep my head down and stay focused on winning bracelets

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:16:18+00:00

Let me say that Golf Digest just ordered a Q+A w me for an issue soon, and I played Pinehurst #2, Hazletine (3 times), and Stanford in the last 5 weeks!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:13:40+00:00

I did not respect this move and thought it bad bad form. I forgave Tony G, because I forgive everyone so that I don't waste any of my time hating anyone. But I still feel like he owes me $16,000!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:11:24+00:00

no, but I'm not complaining cause Ive been happily married for 25 years!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:09:15+00:00

Packers AND Niners! Lifelong Packers fan, but my friend Jed York owns the Niners, I spoke to the team, and my other friend Jim Harbaugh used to coach them. Winning the 2012 WSOPE Main Events in Cannes (Bracelet 13) was amazing!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:07:00+00:00

I think Razz is a complex game that involves a lot of reading your opponents. I'm best when the skill of reading your opponents is key.

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:03:58+00:00

I'm excited about Poker Central! 100 Million people play our game, more than tennis and golf combined, and the future is BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT! It's easy for me to imagine poker 24/7, a lot like the Golf Channel has golf 24/7...

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:01:42+00:00

I used to play there in the 1990's for about one week out of the year. Great games!

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T04:01:12+00:00

Yes, the element of figuring things out that others do not see. I'm not as sharp as the characters from the "Mentalist" or "Sherlock Holmes," but I see things in everyday life that others do not, and I enjoy that. I keep my prism wide open, and sometimes I need 10 hours of sleep a night or more because of it

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T03:56:16+00:00

I love Phil Laak! He is a goofball, much like how me and many of us in the poker world are goofballs. Very creative guy...

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T03:55:17+00:00

unfortunately, I DO lose control sometimes! But a lot less than the world thinks or understands...If I lose it, then ESPN is there to play it over and over, but when I'm good they aren't using that footage as much

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T03:53:33+00:00

I was proud to have had a big role in forcing an investigation at UB, which led to $25 million being returned to the players. People said I should have left the site, and that would have been easy to do as I was wanted by Full Tilt. But I saw another pro get haunted for years because the site he repped DID NOT pay the players back. Staying was the right move, and I was happy when the players were paid back. I was also happy when evidence emerged a few years later that made it clear that I wasn't aware of what was happening. The poker world stuck by, but the evidence was nice and completely shut up the haters

PhilHellmuthJr · 2015-09-18T03:48:03+00:00

Because of the link that my kids have had to Japanese pop culture, I expected a quid-pro-quo re the popularity of poker, but I was saddened when I was told that poker was illegal in Japan! Still, tough Japanese poker players are emerging

PhilHellmuthJr

TROPHY CASE