| 18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
header-bg

Your Poker Questions Answered: “Is Phil Hellmuth Good?”

phil hellmuth6

Got a poker question? We might have the answer for you. Every week PokerListings tries to answer some of the more basic poker questions you might have. These questions are mostly for new players so feel free to ask anything. There are no stupid questions.

The following questions are collected from various places including our poker strategy section, Quora, Yahoo! Answers and the comments from last week’s Poker Questions piece.

This week we’ll take a look at Phil Hellmuth’s skills, the fight for legal poker in America and some of the worst odds in poker.

Feel free to drop questions in the comments section below and we’ll answer them next week.

***

Question: Best way to fight for legalized and regulated online poker in America?
-Chris (@y2icon) Icon via Twitter

Answer: Good question. The simplest answer is to get involved with your local government and contact your representative any way that you feel comfortable (mail, email, petition) about legalizing online poker.

sheldonadelson

Sheldon Adelson: Not a fan of online poker.

There are numerous petitions you can sign but historically politicians respond well to personal appeals so those are also important.

There are also several organizations that lobby for online poker including the Poker Players Alliance.

Of course online poker is already legal in Nevada, NJ and Delaware so its important to protect it there.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been making some noise about banning online poker lately so it’s a good idea to tell him to stop.

It’s particularly important for online poker to have a strong, mobilized community.

One other thing, if you’re in NJ or NV you should play online poker! Strong player pools in those states will likely help convince other states looking for revenue.

Q: What are the worst odds in poker?

We dug into that this week on PokerListings in a piece titled, “What Are the Odds? A List of Long-Shot Odds in Texas Holdem”.

We’ll leave you with one right here: The odds of three players flopping a set are really, really extremely unlikely. Like 1 in 13,960,821 hands unlikely.

Q: Is Phil Hellmuth good or just really unlucky?

This is really two questions.

  • 1. Is Phil Hellmuth good at poker?

Yes but there is a caveat.

Phil Hellmuth 2016WSOP

The Poker Brat

First of all there are plenty of highly-regarded pros who have zero respect for Hellmuth's game and claim his fundamentals are terrible. They might not be completely wrong.

At the same time he's the only player in the world with 14 WSOP bracelets to his name.

In reality Hellmuth’s key skill is probably playing against lesser-skilled competition and picking up reads on them.

Anyone who’s seen Hellmuth play live at the WSOP can attest to a certain “Poker Brat Aura” that captivates recreational players. It’s part of the reason he’s been able to overcome massive NLHE fields over the years.

Another knock on Hellmuth is that the vast majority of his bracelets have come in No-Limit Hold’em. Players who have a good grasp on all the games are generally more respected in the pro community.

  • 2. Is Hellmuth unlucky?

This one is impossible to answer without getting some very detailed hand histories for every time Hellmuth plays live tournaments.

We’ll leave you with this, however. Hellmuth is known to play a bit tight. Tight players generally get good hands cracked because that’s almost all they play.

Hellmuth has also won over $20 million playing live tournaments so it’s tough to call anyone with those kind of results “unlucky”.

Q: Can three-of-a kind beat two-pair?

Yes. Three-of-a-kind always beats two-pair. Here’s a look at the complete hand rankings.

Q: Do online poker players scout tables for seemingly bad players?

Gus Hansen

Everyone has been targeted at one point or another.

Yes. For a large number of players the goal of poker is to make money. You’re going to make more money playing against players that are worse at the game. It’s as simple as that.

The technique is often referred to as “table selection” or “bum hunting”. That said, it’s becoming more difficult for serious grinders to scout tables thanks to randomized tables and anonymous player IDs.

More and more poker sites are using a quick-seat functionality to avoid the entire lobby process. It’s a great change that’s being made to protect new or inexperienced poker players.

Read More:

Q: At any poker table is it legal or fair for a husband and wife to sit next to each other and give each other chips and split pots they win with each other?

No. Although husbands and wives can sit next to each other (as can friends, sisters, brothers or any other relation) they can never share chips.

If you’re in a cash game you could give your significant other some cash but chips are strictly forbidden. In fact, you must take all your chips out of play if you’re planning on removing any of them.

In a tournament you absolutely cannot share chips and that would be considered collusion and likely get you banned completely.

Keep in mind that if you’re playing a friendly cash game or poker tournament at home than this will usually be OK depending on the situation.

More Poker Questions:

Related Articles

Unibet Poker Open 2023
Unibet Open Bukarest 2023 – Here we go!

Unibet Open Bukarest alkoi pari tuntia sitten, pahoittelut että blogi pääsee vauhtiin myöhässä. Syytetään Lufthansaa, joka onnistui eilen jättämään matkalaukkuni Frankfurtin kentälle. Nyt on laukku saatu tänne Bukarestin Marriottiin ja…

November 30, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Suomalaisten chip count, Event 1

Ville Mustonen 65K Aleksi Naski 265K Samuli Hietala 330K Jarno Jokiniemi 85K Max Avela 260K Kai Lehto 105K Feras Abid 130K Topi Palenius 95K Atte Franssila 85K Markku Vihavainen 50K…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Voitonjako on selvillä

Ensimmäisen sormuskisan WSOPC Event 1, voitonjako on nyt selvillä. Turnauksen palkintopotti on 183.360€, ja 47 parasta pääsee rahoille. Turnauksen voittaja kuittaa mukavat 38.510€, ja min cash on 1.100€. Tällä hetkellä…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
WSOP banner
WSOP Schedule 2020

The 2020 World Series of Poker kicks of in Las Vegas on May 27th. With a time frame of more than 7 weeks and 100 tournaments this will be the…

August 21, 2023 | Arved Klöhn
WSOP banner
Pikku tauon jälkeen jatketaan

Pidettiin pieni tauko, nyt peli jatkuu tasolla bb ante 4K, blindit 2K/4K. 111/573 pelaajaa.

July 25, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
melvin shroen live reports from The Festival in Nottingham 2023
PokerListings set to do Live Reporting from The Festival Series in Nottingham (13-19 February 2023) 

Melvin Schroen - Live Reporter For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.…

March 22, 2023 | Melvin Schroen
PokerListings Awards 2022
PokerListings Operator Awards – Winners 2022

Since 2020, we have been awarding the best poker operators and innovators in the poker business with our PokerListings Operator Awards. Every year the operators are nominated and awarded in…

January 11, 2023 | Bjorne Lindberg
Oliver Hutchins Wins the Trophy in the €500K GTD PPC Malta Main Event (€71,000)

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2022 PPC Malta Main Event United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins won the trophy in the €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event for €71,000 after a back and…

April 7, 2022 | Jason Glatzer
All Poker News

Comment on that

Your message is awaiting approval