Respect, Aruba and Thoughts on Hellmuth

First off ... There have been a lot of people that have been great for different reasons over the past few months.

Being that I am completely new to all of this, I am thankful and grateful for everyone that has gone out of their way to talk poker, finances, bankroll management, life and all of the intricate details of the ins and outs of what it is like to play the poker circuit.

I've enjoyed myself more away from the tables in Vegas, L.A., A.C. and Aruba going out to dinner, having drinks, whatever - just getting to know some of you, and I truly appreciate all of the advice and support you have all given me.

Al R., Will, Al C., Tony Terminator, Cutler, A.P., Brady, Fox, Vinny, Kenna, Stout, Joey B., Jerry Cali, Perry, Matt V., N.C., Mike K., Barry L., Mike S., Micah, Devo, Larry Tennessee, Cliff and of course my three confidants Bizz, Acap and Rock, seriously thank you!

OK, that's out of the way ... Went to Aruba for UltimateBet's Aruba Poker Classic. Aruba was amazing, the hotel was great, the people were great, the food was excellent, the ocean was amazing, the results for me were terrible.

Conratulations to Matt Brady, Aruba Classic main event winner.

Congratulations though to Matt Brady on the win, Allie Prescott on a well-deserved final table and Al Riccobono on yet another cash in a major poker tournament.

My main event ended with about a half hour to go in Day 1. The structure of the tournament was great; we started with $15,000 in chips and 90-minute levels, and I had a good table draw for the way I like to play.

Well, after the very first hand of the tournament, I never had the $15k starting stack again for the entire day. I was down to $2,700 in the middle of the second level before I really slapped myself in the face and settled in and focused.

I grinded my stack up to $13k by the dinner break, which really wasn't that bad. Sitting on $8,900 with a half hour to go in the day, with the average stack hovering around $20k and the blinds at $200/$400, I wasn't worried at all.

I was planning on getting a hand that I could double up with before the end of the day, knowing my table would just assume I was trying to make a move to get chips or throw in the towel - but that's just simply never the case with me.

UTG raises to $1,400, folds to my button where I look down and find all you could ever hope for: AA. I waste no time and ship my $8,900 into the pot, at which point the original raiser took about four seconds before calling half of his stack with pocket eights.

$19k pot at the end of the day to get back to average going into Day 2; this is great. Oh - the small blind gave me the perennial kiss of death when he declared that I was in good shape because he folded an 8.

Flop J-T-5, "the dealer can't ship me the pot fast enough" ... turn Q, "he's not gonna dare put a 9 on the board is he?", river - 9.

Hard not to enjoy the Caribbean - even after two horrendous beats.

I stared at the board for about 25 seconds because well, I can't get used to losing $5k no matter how much money I ever have - especially when I'm a 95% favorite to win the hand.

Wished the table the best of luck quicker than I usually do because I felt the need to literally run up to the room, grab a fresh bottle of Jager and a few cans of Red Bull and just start going to town.

So yes, I was "that guy" walking around the resort with a bottle of Jager, Red Bull and a box of Ritz crackers.

I won't bore you with the details of the $2k debacle. With 24 left I moved in from the button with K-4 and the big blind felt like he was priced in with 3-4. The board looked a little something like this: 6-8-9-5-2.

Other than two horrendous beats I had a great time in Aruba with Jena; we really spent a lot of time with a lot of good people and we had a blast. Aruba was definitely one of the nicest if not the nicest place I've ever been and I already can't wait to go back.

Moving on ... I read a lot of blogs, a lot of poker news, and I'm usually on all of the major sites reading about well-known players, not so well-known players; I just can't get enough really ... it helps to see where other people's heads are at.

While I was in Aruba, at UltimateBet's Aruba Classic, I couldn't help but notice someone was missing. Sure enough, Phil Hellmuth wrote a blog that explained his wife was in their penthouse suite in Aruba by herself while he decided to stay behind and play in another World Series of Poker Europe event.

He's so concerned with bracelets that he left his wife in Aruba alone and failed to show up to HIS OWN SPONSOR'S biggest tournament of the year. Believe it or not a lot of people actually made the trip to Aruba just to see this guy and what does he do? He shows up five days late. Five!

Young: Not a fan of Hellmuth's Aruba performance.

You claim to be some poker god but you should be ashamed of yourself and publicly apologize for your enormous mistake. It would make you a lot more likable to actually see you admit that you did something wrong.

To make things worse when he actually did show up, he got on the microphone and could not have been more annoying when the main event was under 100 players and the $2k was down to six tables.

If someone would have been walking around the room screaming into the microphone, giving play-by-play while hands were going on and basically shouting his every thought into a microphone for over 20 minutes while he was playing. he would have lost his mind.

For a guy that walks around like he is God's gift to all of us, I am simply not impressed. Hellmuth you really dropped the ball, you embarrassed yourself and your company. I'm just trying to tell it like it is ...

*A little side-note ... The poker community is a small one, and it's becoming clear that a lot of people are friends with a lot of people on tour.  For the most part you see the same people EVERYWHERE you go!

I've had ample time to revise this, and I chose not to. I'm not attacking Phil Hellmuth; I'm simply saying what I feel needs to be said. I respect his poker accomplishments, but I don't respect a lot of his actions.

I don't know him on a personal level like many people that have been on tour for a lot longer than I do. My only interaction with him ever was at the WSOP, after E-DOG won his bracelet and they were celebrating with a group of friends.

They came into Lucky Strike where I was with a few of my friends (pre-bracelet). We challenged them to a game, $1k a man (I bowl about a 140 if I'm lucky) - it was more for the story than anything else.

He declined, and that was that. I do think it is disgusting how he treats other players at the table, and I'm not quite sure why Scotty Nguyen took so much heat and everyone is afraid to say when Hellmuth does something wrong.

Like I originally said, I'm just trying to tell it like it is.

-- Jason Young

Editor's Note: Jason Young came out of nowhere to win a bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker and has taken his newfound bankroll and hit the pro circuit in hopes of building poker into a full-time career.

He'll be posting on his progress in an exclusive series of blogs for PokerListings.com over the next few months.

More blogs from Jason Young:

• Lesson Learned
• Life-Changing Year Part 1
• Life-Changing Year Part 2