Phil Hellmuth: Is His Image an Act?

[Johnny Hughes]

In recent tournaments, the television focus is often on Phil Hellmuth who is either grumbling about his luck or announcing his supernatural superiority. Is all that arrogance an act? Television is demanding and getting showmanship out of poker players.

When I was a child, my wresting uncle, Rowdy Pat O'Dowdy would come to town with a car load of the most colorful funny athletic cauliflowered ear group of dear friends with names like Big Train, the Masked Marvel,and Gorgeous George. They would sit down to a family dinner and then go out to the Coliseum and seem to beat the living hell out of each other. The crowds wanted drama. Wrestlers became actors. My uncle helped invent all that. He always drove these flashy soon to be obsolete cars, Kaisers, Fraziers, Hub Mobiles.

Phil Hellmuth is now that way just like John McInroe to whom he is often compared. The image is partly but only partly manufactured. He would be deader than Saddam Hussein's dear male children if he acted that way around the Lone Star State.

One time I saw a player draw out on Phil Hellmuth during the World Series. Hellmuth stood up and berated the player and said, "You never win any of these tournaments. You just draw out on me...." and his tirade went on and on and would be embarrassing to any well mannered people because it was a massive display of bad manners. The dealer and the floor man said nothing. There is a psychological response called scapegoating whereas someone strongly attacked by a group or in a group can suffer a breakdown or psychotic episode. At the least, it is beyond the rules of fairness in a game to publicly berate someone who is not seeking celebrity status.

So much attention is directed at Phil Hellmuth's poor manners, self-centered tirades and not enough attention to the victims of his frequent verbal assaults. His articles are usually about rather ordinary hands some "fool" beat him on.

One year, they announced that there would be one more hand and then end for the night at the World Series. Phil Hellmuth caught two nines, moved in, and was eliminated. They announced that over the loud speaker and people applauded all through the casino.

Having said all that, when Mr. Hellmuth is standing around with the other big Pros or working as a commentator for TV, he seems to be very popular with most of the people he competes with.

It is part of life that people at the age of maturity, college age, are becoming less self-centered. Phil Hellmuth did not grow up but he will grow old

I didn't grow up either but I am getting old.

Johnny Hughes