ShareHe has 16 WSOP gold bracelets, more than $27million in tournament winnings and is a Poker Hall of Famer, but Phil Hellmuth is “the luckiest player of all time” according to Doug Polk!
Phil Hellmuth is the LOAT pic.twitter.com/1aUUf2XB9Q
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) March 24, 2022
The Upswing Poker boss was unimpressed that the Poker Brat made it to number 4 in the fans’ GOAT voting list, describing him instead as the LOAT – luckiest of all time, much to the amusement of his colleagues.
Kane Kalas, who subscribes to the “White Magic” school of thought about Hellmuth’s skill described big Phil’s “intuition” as the difference between him and many of his peers.
“He has some of the best poker intuition of any player on this list or any player of all time. The reason I am able to say that confidently is that the guy doesn’t do any work off the felt.”
“He doesn’t study, he just shows up and wins consistently! And that’s because of his intuition!”
Polk, who had previously admitted Hellmuth’s top 20 spot was warranted, disagreed with Kalas.
“It hurts me what I am about to say...because the sentence is just so stupid... but I truly believe that Phil Hellmuth is the luckiest poker play...of all time!”
As Kalas and Upswing Poker VP Mike Brady doubled in laughter, Polk added: “And I think it’s not even close! I can’t even think of someone who is close!”
Hellmuth’s poker abilities have long been ridiculed in certain parts of the highstakes community, the poker legend challenged about not playing the highroller events.
His recent results at the US Poker Open, however, speak for themselves – two 2nd places, a 4th and another cash giving him 5th place in the overall leaderboard standings.
His High Stakes Duel run, which saw him win seven straight heads-up battles, defeating Antonio Esfandiari and Daniel Negreanu both by a 3-0 margin along the way, is unprecedented. A 1-1 tie with Tom Dwan should be settled soon with a third showdown.
However, Polk chose to focus on some of Hellmuth’s specific hands that were questionable in those matches.
“What about all of those hands where he doesn’t make money, or loses money because he plays a hand terribly?” asked Polk, referencing a trey-deuce punt against Jungleman in King of the Hill.
Last week saw one of the most talked about hands of the year, when Hellmuth called Alex Foxen’s 4-bet with Q4offsuit, a hand that went viral...
can someone explain to us what's going on here?
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) March 25, 2022
IS THIS THE POKER HAND OF THE YEAR? pic.twitter.com/rpkIP3GwgR
Of Hellmuth’s obvious successes, Polk closes by saying: “I cannot explain it, because I have not seen Phil Hellmuth play hands well!”
A Hellmuth-Polk heads-up showdown would, of course, set the poker world alight – two justifiably self-proclaimed champions of the mano-a-mano format.
Maybe after Hellmuth disposes of his old nemesis Dwan? Perhaps, and we’ll keep you updated if or when that happens!
