Shoot the Messenger?
God, why do I have to wear this ugly shirt? Oh yeah lots of money
I was reading a thread (here) on 2+2 about WSOP bracelet winner and online highstakes cash game player, Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles verbal sparring with Phil Hellmuth at a main event televised table.
I have attached the full transcript pulled from Witteles’s blog and attached below, and although it does raise some interesting questions about etiquette at the table, the role of the tournament director and of course the continuing refusal of those involved in the AP/UB scandal to come totally clean, what really interested me is the role of the UB representatives in this saga.
At the time of the scandal UB had three paid professional representatives, Antonio Esfandiari, Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth. All three of these players accepted money to represent and promote the corporate entity that was UlimateBet poker. At the same time high level employee’s of this company where routinely stealing money from players.
So the facts are that high profile players, and lets not forget that in the US there is no other player whose profile comes even close to Phil Hellmuth’s, were being paid millions of dollars to attract people to a site where cheating was regulary taking place.
It does seem very strange that these players do not appear to have suffered any damage to there public profile’s at all from the scandal. We can all be pretty sure that none of the sponsored players were in anyway aware of the cheating, yet the decision’s of Duke and Hellmuth to publically standby a company that is still refusing to come clean about the full extent of the problems, to the very people they cheated is a little disconcerting to say the least.
Booby Charlton is a knight of the realm and a much loved public figure, If Bobby Charlton was seen on TV representing a pension company that was later to be found stealing its customers asset’s, and he then decided to continue to work for them, then all respect would be lost for a great man, we trust the products Bobby Charlton endorses because we trust the man, we know he is a person of stature and integrity and his very involvement makes us feel secure.
UlitmateBet chose Hellmuth to be there public face because they know what he represents to the American general public, to them ‘Hellmuth is poker’. The reason companies chose people like Bobby Charlton and Phil Hellmuth to represent them is because they know we trust them, that’s what these companies are buying for million dollar endorsements, the publics trust. So surely those selling the public’s trust have an obligation to perform some due diligence on the public’s behalf?
I’m not expecting Hellmuth or any other celebrity to perform a full audit! But some investigation of the company you will be paid to represent should be performed and if this trust is found to be misplaced then surely they have some responsibility to the public to use there celebrity in any way they can to bring pressure to bear on the wrong doers.
During the UB/AP scandal all of the companies paid representatives kept a very low profile, often refusing to answer questions on the subject, this just seem’s wrong. Actually every time I see Hellmuth in a UB jersey it seems so very wrong, like spiting in the face of the poker community.
Quoted from Todd Witteles
“Interesting experience, to say the least.
It was like playing a final table, but getting nothing when I busted out.
Yes, I did get a sponsor for the table, but I don’t want to go into that at the moment. I’ll explain that at a later time.
So anyway, I thought Phil Hellmuth was going to be in the 4 seat, but I guess it was listed wrong, and he was in the 6 seat. I was in the 2 seat.
Phil came in with 27k. I came in with 9625. The table chip leader — some internet kid who Dustin told me is good — came in with 110k.
Very first hand dealt already provided some fireworks — both chip-wise (though not for me) and trash-talk-wise.
Phil opened in early-middle position to something like 1300. The chip leader re-popped it to like 4500, and it folded to me in the BB. I looked down to spot 94o. Obvious fold, but it gave me a chance to talk some trash to Phil, knowing the hand had a good chance of making TV (if the pot got big). Before folding, I asked Phil, “Can you see my cards? Oh wait, I forgot, we’re not on Ultimatebet.” Then I folded.
Phil looked rather stunned and responded, “You seem like a real nice guy.”
I came back with, “It’s hard to be a nice guy when you get your money stolen.”
The floor immediately came over and told us to stop it.
The hand treated Phil well. The flop came Jd5c6c. He and the internet kid got it all in.
Phil tabled 7c8c for the monster draw. The internet kid showed 65o (LOL).
Phil gets the Ac on the turn, and a blank river doubles him to over 55k.
Shortly afterwards, I piped up, “I am usually not a jerk at the table. But your company stole money from me.” Phil started to respond, but again the floor told us to be quiet.
A little bit of time passed. Then Phil actually started with me. He asked, “So a company has some low-level employees do some dishonest things that people don’t know about for awhile. Do you blame everyone in the company for that?” I was just about to come back with the whole story of UB covering it up, refusing to release the names of the other 5 guilty parties, etc., but the floorman intervened for the final time. Phil tried to insist (as did I) that we wanted to discuss this, but the floorman didn’t care. He quietly said to me, “This has to stop. Final warning.”
I knew that I had to stop at that point, as I wasn’t about to draw a 20-minute penalty short-stacked like this.Phil, who at first asked the floorman to let us debate this, now seemed somewhat relieved. He thanked the floorman and they kind of bumped fists in the “We are bros” kind of way, that kind of bugged me. The floorman saw that I saw this, and came back around and patted me on the back.
So that was it for the trash talk. Now came time for some poker.
Phil continued to hit lucky hand after lucky hand, playing uncharacteristically loose-aggressive the whole time (especially pre-flop). He chipped up near 100k.
This table didn’t really have any donks. The chip leader to start the day kept losing hands (including an AQ/QQ confrontation all-in pre-flop where an ace flopped), and got smacked down to about 25k.
Relatively early in the day, I picked up KK against AK and it held. In fact, a K hit the river! I moved up to 18k.
I was hardly playing any hands, mostly due to getting dealt trash, and any late-position stealing opportunities tended to be ruined by a raise in front.
Of course, the structure was slow enough to where I didn’t have to panic, so I didn’t.
I finally picked up KQo UTG. I will often fold this here (especially in NL), but I hadn’t played a pot in forever, and figured it would be good for a UTG blind-steal. Besides, if I got called and flopped something, I wouldn’t have to worry about playing it deep-stacked. I’d get it all-in with top pair at this point. Folded around to the rather tight BB, who called. Flop came A78 with 2 clubs. I fired a 2k continuation into the 3k or so pot, and he check-raised me to 5k. Obvious fold, down to 13-14k. I then got myself back to about 15-16k by isolating an even shorter stack with AdKd. He folded. I then won a small pot a bit later when I defended the BB and the heads-up opponent showed post-flop weakness, so I took it down with a bluff. I was back to over 18k.
I got nothing for awhile. Finally, I picked up red tens UTG. I raised, but Phil Hellmuth popped it to 5500. While Phil was very loose-aggro today, I had only seen him re-raise before the flop once, and he showed aces that time. He was more aggro if nobody had opened yet. My decision was made for me when the tight SB called the whole 5500. I tossed my tens. Flop came 552. SB checked, Phil checked. Turn was a 3. SB led out 8k, Phil frustratedly showed AK and folded. The SB also showed AK, and Phil was annoyed. I still don’t regret the laydown.
Not too much later, I was dealt 33 in late position. Phil opened to 1500 UTG. I had about 15.5k total. I decided to flat and see if I could hit the set, figuring I’d get paid off due to my short-stack status if I did. The SB came along, BB folded.
Pot was about 5500.
Flop: 9h3h2d
Exactly what I was looking for! SB checked, Phil checked (didn’t even c-bet). I put Phil on missed overcards. I had 14k behind. I thought to myself, “What can I bet here that will look like a steal-bet, yet making it look like I’m leaving myself enough to fold and still have a playable stack?” I especially thought this about Phil, who I knew would be smart enough to analyze the situation like that. I put out 3k, which was a bit of an underbet, but probably what a lot of players would bet in that spot if they had a 14k stack, missed, and wanted to steal it.
SB immediately tossed it. Phil snap-called.
Pot was now 11500, I had 11k behind.
Turn was 7h.
Really? Did Phil really check to me with a flush draw? Seemed unlikely to me. Anyway, now I had to put the rest in, especially to protect any cheap draws with a heart.
Phil didn’t snap call, so I felt confident. He thought for a bit. Then he remarked, “This is a very hard hand to lay down.” I thought he was holding the ace of hearts, perhaps the king of hearts.
Finally he called. I was unhappy to see him table Qh2h (nice UTG raise, Phil).
Js on river.
As I walked away, Phil stuck his hand out for me to shake it. I was considering pulling a Eric Lindgren/Layne Flack “denied” move on him, but I decided to not be a jerk and shook his hand. He was willing to go at it with me about UB on TV. I had to give him credit for that — even asking the floorman at first to let us continue.
Very disappointing to flop a set and be that close to a stack of over 30k again, but that’s the way things have gone for me this WSOP.
Phil now has around 100k. He just hasn’t missed a hand. He made 2 straights and 2 flushes in the less than 2 hours I was there.
Good chance some of this crap makes it on TV, especially the final hand because it was an interesting hand (set cracked by flush), and it involved Phil Hellmuth busting the secondary name at the table.
I am assuming they will edit out the UB trash talk from TV.
I am also interested to know if the floorman had a right to stop our arguing about UB.”
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your stuff gets better, kev. i dont usually enjoy self-centred blog stuff from serious yank poker players, but because of your preamble, it made for a very interesting read.
When was this? Greek Jack has been on Hellmuths table last 2 says of the main event , and it was the feature table for most of yesterday. Just doing a piece now about it
great read, hope this makes the TV!!
Loved reading this
Quality Squire