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Phil Hellmuth And Old School WSOP

Poker Anorak RSS / Editor / 17 June 2008 /

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POKER is going mainstream. Poker has gone mainstream.

At the WSOP, over 4,000 players entered the $1,500 buy-in No-limit Hold'em event.

"Is poker popular?" asks Phil Hellmuth. "My face is on 12 million beer cans right now. This may be the coolest thing that has happened to me in my life."

Hellmuth writes for USA Today, and kicks off by repeating the adage that: "Playing poker is a tough way to make an easy living."

Hellmuth, like many poker pros, plays every day at the WSOP, trying to win a gold bracelet and money. Of course, Hellmuth has already won 11 bracelets, one more than Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan.

Hellmuth relives 1989 and all that: "After Chan and I took everyone else out, I leaned in so that only Chan could hear me say, 'Johnny, I'm going to play perfect poker. You're going to have to play perfect poker and get lucky to beat me.'"

Hellmuth was 24. Chan was going for third win in a row. Hellmuth won.

Nowadays things are different. There are more players, and thanks to online poker, more players with experience of winning and losing.

Says Hellmuth: "Although I respect the New Breed, they still have to look us old school guys square in the eye. All I can say is this: Don't blink, kid."

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