Phil made headlines with a Q4 hand at the US Poker Open when he badly misplayed the hand and got lucky, now it seems to follow him wherever he goes.
However, on this week's trip to the Hustler Casino, the gift proved double-edged. Hellmuth found himself on both ends of Qx4x bluffs.
Yesterday's much-hyped Hustler Casino Live stream saw Hellmuth take on a half dozen regulars from the Hustler Casino and from Phil's own home games. Among his opponents were the legendary Mikki Mase along with long-time show regulars Ben, Sunny, and Barry.
The stakes were $25/$50 with a $50 big blind ante. Norm and Lon (and later Maria Ho) were in the commentary booth. All in all, the stage was set for a big evening. Not only that, but Hellmuth was scheduled to return today for more action on the main casino floor.
Monday: Flushed out
After a few minutes of Hellmuth holding court from seat number 2 at the head of the table, the stream was ready to get underway.
The very first hand of the game saw Hellmuth sitting behind a stack of $5,000, the smallest buy-in of the session. The other players had between $10k and $50k in front of them with a total of $175k in play before anyone busted and had to rebuy.
Phil looked down at Q♦️4♦️ in the cut-off with a raise and a call behind him. Feeling frisky, Hellmuth tossed in the $300 call.
The flop came down T♦️5♦️3♠. Ben, the pre-flop raiser, bet $1,500 into the $1,025 pot. Sunny folded and Hellmuth shoved with nothing but a third-nut flush draw. Ben folded the K❤️2❤️, and Phil got the table to guess his hand before triumphantly flipping it over.
In the end, Phil finished the session comfortably up by $18,400 and in an excellent mood.
Ben also tried to get in on the action yesterday, losing a $5.6k pot with the hand. He told Phil, "That's a bad hand."
Phil should have listened.
Tuesday: Bluffed off and called out
When the action shifted away from yesterday's studio to this afternoon's game on the main casino floor, Phil found himself in the orbit of a monster of his own making.
Phil was signing books and moving between the number 3 seat on all the tables on the floor. A cute publicity stunt reminiscent of chess simuls. During the first hand of the session, Matt Bandini picked up Q❤️4❤️. Bandini expertly bluffed Phil off a winning hand and showed the cards.
Phil moved on in disgust.
However, just eight hands later, Phil was back at the same table in time to see Bandini make a hero call on the river with pocket fours. Bandini's kicker? The Queen.
"What have we started?" Phil asked the table, before immediately heading to Twitter.
"Q-4!! What did I start?!?" Phil wrote. "First hand of meet up game @HUSTLERCASINOLA, I was bluffed by Matt Bandini w Qh-4h, then, can’t make this up, 8 hands later Bandini called all-in on the river, w fours (Q-4 off suit), great call!"
Featured image source: Hustler Casino Live
