Phil Hellmuth is either one of your favorite poker players or you despise the man. Needless to say he is a character. On recent televised events he has been facing some pretty harsh criticism. Antonio has laid into him a couple times and granted the WSOPE ridicule was warranted. He did call off all his chips with a smaller full house. Antonio said it best- " I wouldn't have called in that spot" Which again is the truth! He played badly in that spot, but we don't know the history leading up to the hand.Now we lead into the reasoning behind the post. In this weeks HSP season 6 episode (1st) Phil was being berated by the other players. Now he does deserve some of this but what he does not deserve, and any other player is to be picked on or made fun of while involved in a hand. When the integrity of play is compensated by teasing or needling it needs to stop. After all we are playing for money, and in their cases hundreds of thousands! It is expected that Hellmuth will say he's the best ever and berate players, but that is part of his marketing image. Phil never makes fun while in a hand, he tries to get info. He has never been seen to effect the play of a hand when he is not a part of it. He respects the game and should receive that respect back when playing.
Even Doyle took Jabs at him in the WSOPE saying his entrance was embarrassing. No matter how much you love or hate Phil he is GREAT for Poker.
SHODOWN
