According to this site, Phil Hellmuth is going to be on the next season of The Surreal Life along with Randy "Macho Man" Savage and, allegedly, Carrot Top. With all due respect to Bill Simmons, this could very well shatter the Unintentional Comedy Scale as we know it. My kingdom for just one scene of Macho Man busting a steel chair over Hellmuth's head. Did anyone see the episode of High Stakes Poker on GSN last night where Hellmuth was whining like mad? It was hilarious. The other players were openly mocking him. Even Barry Greenstein, Mr. Nice Guy who never engages in table talk at all, was busting Phil's chops. At one point, after Hellmuth talked himself into calling Greenstein's $18,000 raise when he didn't even have top pair, Greenstein explained to Phil that when you bluff you have to bet, you can't bluff by calling a bet. I was cracking up.
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Are you much of a fan of Celebrity Poker Showdown? Hellmuth just replaced Phil Gordon as the color commentator this season. He's not as annoying as I thought he would be, but Gordon had a far more developed sense of humor.
Now I know jack about the poker circuit, much less playing real poker against other people, but how does a guy like Hellmuth get schooled on poker? Maybe he's just an ass. I honestly don't know him or follow the circuit.
Did you see Hellmuth on the new Celebrity Poker Showdown last week? He's replaced Phil Gordon, but if they were expecting a livelier time with Hellmuth then they must be disappointed. He was perfectly calm and sane, belying his typical behaviour at the poker table. It was interesting to see him being so normal--he even commented on how embarrassed he is to see his own antics on TV sometimes.
I did see that episode of High Stakes, and I think Daniel Negranu summed up the thoughts of the other players upon seeing Phil Hellmuth enter a cash game:
"Yum yum."
Phil's a histrionic prima donna who loves the camera almost as much as he loves himself. Him being on Surreal Life is too good to be true.
On a somewhat related sports note -- well, ok, not related at all, since poker isn't a sport and this doesn't involve Phil Hellmuth, but on this blog I'll take what I can get in the gaming/sports arena -- you and I were both way off on the Miami Heat, Ed. So much for our theory that they had gathered a pathologically incompatible group of selfish bastards with no chance of coming together long enough to win anything.
I guess that's why Pat Riley is the president and coach and we are not.
Jeff-
Yeah, I was just thinking today that I should eat some crow on that one. I was looking like a genius for 3/4 of the season, then they went to hell.
Damn -- I may have to just delete that Celebrity Poker episode from the TiVo and cancel the season pass. I think watching bad poker is quite instructive, and CPS is a gold mine of that, so I probably won't, but I'll miss Phil a lot.
The High Stakes Poker episodes with Hellmuth are classic -- fun to watch him drop 150 grand in about six hands. Schädenfreude -- it's what's for dinner.
Phil's a histrionic prima donna who loves the camera almost as much as he loves himself. Him being on Surreal Life is too good to be true.
That's kind of like President Bush's famous Only In America speech. Too good to be true!
I did watch the new CPS last night, and my biggest problem with Hellmuth is that his voice is too close in timbre to Dave's. Phil Gordon has a deeper voice than Dave, which made it instantly obvious who was speaking.