Phil Hellmuth has been oddly quiet of late. He’s stayed home for much of the World Series of Poker. Playing just the odd event here and there. As a result, he has been out-Hellmuthed this year by players like Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu.
Unsatisfied with this, Hellmuth has surfaced again. For a bit. Specifically for the $25,000 buy-in, no-limit hold'em Poker Players Championship.
Like a G4
This event is something of a come down from the $50k mixed game of previous years but plays more to Hellmuth’s strengths. Or rather his strength: tournament no-limit Texas hold'em.
His return to the limelight might have been an example of peak Hellmuth. In just one Twitter post he drops Randall Emmett’s name (producer of the Irishman), drools over Gulfstream’s brand, casually flashes his Hugo Boss jacket, and makes sure three of his sponsors get their logos on screen.
Crass consumerists everywhere eat your heart out.
Cuz he’s back, baby.
He just wouldn’t be Hellmuth if he stopped there though. So he more or less live-tweeted his entire private jet trip down to Cabo.
This act is a perfect Hellmuthian stew. Equal parts escapist aspirational programming and outright offensive privilege and waste.
Both aspects of which are given a more visceral intensity by the social isolation of a global pandemic and the general misery of a global recession.
Travel in time as well as miles
For a few hours, we were back in the early 2000s. All that was missing was a half-dozen scantily clad backing dancers and a Napoleon costume for Hellmuth himself.
Unusually, it looks like he won’t be playing the main event this year. The 1989 WSOP Main Event champ and fifteen-time bracelet winner seems happy to play the odd game here and there.
No doubt he's more concerned with his new career as a self-help guru and author.
For the players
After an incredible number of photos of the in-flight displays, and none of the view out the window, he touched down safe in sunny Mexico.
In the end, it was all worth it. For the pool, and for the golf course. Oh, and the poker, of course.
We could all learn a thing or two
I think we are all looking forward now to Hellmuth showing the Negreanu's, Polk's, and Matusow's of this brave new world, how to do an at table rant. Not a sad expression of frustration and meanness. But as a nakedly self-serving act of showmanship.
He might not be as good as he once was, but he’s as good once as he ever was.
