Tag: Poker

Phil Hellmuth ignites poker world with controversial move that he says wasn’t a fold

This was totally a fold.

This may come as no surprise to those of you who know about Phil Hellmuth and his various controversial moments, but he’s involved in another controversy.

This time, it involves something known as “angle-shooting,” which I’ve described as the poker equivalent of balking in baseball — basically, if you make a move like you’re going to fold your cards and you’re not folding? That’s not OK, because then your opponents may react a certain way when they assume you’re folding.

Here’s the situation: During a live-stream of a no-limit Hold ‘Em game, Hellmuth had Ace-9 offsuit with an Ace on the board, and his opponent — a poker streamer known as “Slime” had Ace-6. Slime moved all-in, and Hellmuth let out a, “[Expletive], I just have no idea what to do here.”

That’s when he appeared to slide his covered cards toward the middle of the table. Most people — everyone? — would assume this was a fold.

It was not. And Slime turned his cards over. (WARNING: NSFW language ahead)

This is angle-shooting, in my opinion. Hellmuth should give this guy the money he won. And others agreed:

Hellmuth responded:

He should definitely give this guy something back.

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9 movie scenes that best capture the highs and lows of gambling

Poker, blackjack and a surprising amount of Keanu Reeves top the list.

Gambling is meant to be simple. Pick a side, put your money down and hope for the best. It rarely works out that way.

Instead what you get is a convoluted mess of math, emotion and money that tends to send bettors spiraling into elation or delirium. Many times it’s both.

Anyone who’s gambled on sports, a table game or in a casino knows just how quickly things can escalate. Before you can catch your breath it’s midnight and Hawaii football is your best chance to break even. Hollywood certainly knows this as well as any industry outside of gaming and it’s led us to these perfect scenes that bettors have found themselves in all too often.

 

A horrible had beat came at the worst time during 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event final table

Oh no, this is brutal.

And then, there were three.

Just a trio of players — Koray Aldemir, Jack Oliver and George Holmes — are left at the final table of the 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event. And although Joshua Remitio finished fourth (don’t be TOO sad, he ended up with $2.3 million for his efforts), this hand is an all-timer that he may not forget.

With five players left at the table, Ozgur Seclimis — who was involved in a quads beating quads hand earlier in the tournament — and his 40 million-plus chips got dealt pocket Kings. Remitio had 16.1 million, which meant he needed to make a move at some point. He got the 10-9 of diamonds, a decent spot to make that move. Seclimis raised to 2.4 million … and Remitio went all in.

Check out that flop …

Two 10s!! THE CROWD GOES WILD! Seclimis lost and would eventually end up in fifth place, taking home $1.8 million.

We’ll see who wins the whole thing soon enough.

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A World Series of Poker Main Event player won the most ridiculous hand on a dangerous bluff

WOW.

We’ve seen an intense hand from the 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event, a bad beat … and now we’ve got ourselves a memorable one that involves one of the riskiest bluffs I’ve ever seen.

This involves Nicholas Rigby and Ronald Jensen. Rigby had nearly 10 million in chips and Jensen had just over 5 million.

Jensen raised to 325,000 chips with a pair of Kings … and Rigby RAISED AGAIN with a 3-2 offsuit.

Now, let’s pause. I had to look this up, because why would Rigby do that with such a weak hand?

Per Poker News, that’s a combo he loves to play because the hand known in his native Pittsburgh as the “Dirty Diaper” is a thing for him: “Rigby’s friend continued to explain that they play the 3-2 game in Pittsburgh like others play the 7-2 game, where everyone at the table must ship a chip to a player who wins a hand with 7-2. In their case, the bounty is on for when a player takes down a pot with the 3-2.”

OK, fine, but why do it in The Main Event? And he played it earlier in the tournament!! Whatever! Onward!

Jensen raises again to 2.1M and Rigby calls.

The flop? It’s close to perfect: Ace-4-4. It gives Rigby a straight draw, but Jensen must immediately wonder if Rigby is holding an Ace, which would doom his pair of Kings. Jensen checks and Rigby bets 3.01M.

After considering it, Jensen folds and Rigby triumphantly showed his absurdly bad hand!

IT WORKED! Rigby didn’t end up winning it all but he took home $136,100 for his efforts in the Main Event. And that hand helped.

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Chris Moneymaker won an intense, huge World Series of Poker Main Event hand, is among chip leaders

Could he win AGAIN?

It was 18 years ago that Chris Moneymaker took home the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet and effectively changed the game as someone who went from online player to champion.

And as of Friday morning, he might be making ANOTHER run.

OK, it’s a little premature to say that. But Moneymaker and a bunch of other players remaining are in the money … and the ex-champ is among the chip leaders.

Part of that is due to a HUGE hand on Thursday. Moneymaker and Bryan Reyes went head to head with two monster hands: Reyes had a pair of Kings and Moneymaker had Aces. The two went back and forth with a four-bet before the flop that Reyes called.

The flop was Queen-6-6. Reyes checked, Moneymaker bet 25,000 and Reyes called. The turn was a 5, and the same thing happened: A check, and this time Moneymaker bet 65,000.

Reyes took a while … AND WENT ALL IN.

Now: This is a TOUGH call for Moneymaker. The way Reyes bet pre-flop indicated strength in a big way — either Kings … or Queens. And if it was Queens, Moneymaker’s Aces would lose.

But Moneymaker — who had over 313K in chips — called the 203K bet, Reyes cursed, and Moneymaker won:

As of Friday morning, he’s 12th in chips with 1,432,000. And the wild thing is he almost didn’t play the Main Event! Per Poker News:

Three months ago, Moneymaker announced on Twitter that he would skip the series altogether due to COVID-19 concerns. He worried that he could potentially bring the virus back to his family in Mississippi even though he’s vaccinated. The former Main Event winner told PokerNews at the time that he expected that he’d be exposed to the virus in the crowded Rio, which forced him to make a tough decision.

Over the past few weeks, Moneymaker began to tease the idea of competing in the Main Event due to the vaccination requirement at the WSOP. But he hadn’t announced his official decision to play publicly until Monday.

We’ll see if this keeps up.

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Phil Hellmuth dresses as Gandalf in his latest World Series of Poker Main Event entrance stunt

Another year, another costume.

Phil Hellmuth is a poker legend, and aside from the foul-mouthed rants he’s known for, there’s another signature of his in recent years: An over-the-top costumed entrance into the World Series of Poker Main Event.

He’s been Thor, he’s been a boxer, a general … and this year? He walked into the Main Event dressed as Gandalf the wizard from Lord of the Rings.

You can see the footage below, along with a compilation of so many of these grand entrances. We’ll see if he can back up the spectacle at the table!

Here’s the, er, magical moment from this week:

And the compilation:

Wild.

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A World Series of Poker player owns up to an absolutely brutal fold on Twitter

An awful, awful fold but he explained what happened.

What you’re about to see is about as brutal of a fold as you’ll ever see in a World Series of Poker tournament.

But what you’ll also see is the player who folded own up to it and explain it, and honestly, it’s a good explanation and I’m tipping my hat to him for taking to Twitter to respond.

Let’s start with the hand: It was the 2021 Poker Players Championship during Limit Hold ‘Em. With three players left, Ryan Leng had an Ace-5 offsuit and Dan Cates — known as “Jungleman” — had King of Diamonds and Queen of Clubs.

Leng raised and Cates called. The flop was Ace, 7 and Jack. Leng had top pair and checked. Cates — with a shot at a straight — bet 300,000 and Leng called.

The turn? A 9. Leng checked again and Cates checked as well.

The river was a King. Oh boy. Cates might not have thought Leng had an Ace and now he has a pair of Kings.

This is where things get interesting. Leng bets 600,000 … and Cates goes all in for 900,000.

Leng has over 10 million in chips. It’s only 300K more to call the bet with top pair, and even if he thinks Cates has a straight, it’s worth seeing if that’s the case.

But no. He folds. And Cates, who would have been out, goes on to win the bracelet.

Leng then took to Twitter with a lengthy explanation for the fold, and you can completely get it:

 

Was it a bad fold? Yeah. But for him to open up and talk about being drained after long hours during the World Series and how he’ll recover from all that should be applauded.

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The Rams celebrated their trade for Von Miller with an all-time GIF backfire

Someone should go make sure the Rams aren’t toying with a box of Oreos

The Los Angeles Rams agreed to one of the biggest moves of the NFL season on Monday by acquiring eight-time Pro Bowl linebacker Von Miller from the Denver Broncos for two second-day draft picks in 2022, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The deal instantly gives one of the league’s Super Bowl favorites (+650 at Tipico Sportsbook following the trade) another brand name playmaker on defense to pair with Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Leonard Floyd. Los Angeles may have built one of the most fearsome units in the league. None of that is in question.

What did raise a few eyebrows, however, is how the team chose to celebrate the pending deal on social media.

 

In a tweet posted shortly after the news broke, the Rams sent out a GIF of John Malkovich as Teddy KGB, a mobster who hosts underground card games in the 1998 film “Rounders” — a nearly perfect poker movie that definitely warrants more discussion at a later date. The scene in which the GIF was clipped from shows an overconfident and pompous Teddy splashing the pot in the face of Matt Damon’s desperate Mike McDermott.

The problem — and a quick spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the film — is that Teddy loses more than $60,000 to Mike by the end of that scene! The “all-in” call, the pot-splashing, the Oreo-eating…it all backfires as spectacularly for Teddy KGB as the accent Malkovich chose to portray him with.

This was not lost on a number of people who replied to the Rams’ tweet.

 

So congrats to the Los Angeles Rams on landing Miller and strengthening their defense for a postseason run. Hopefully it works out a lot better for them than their GIF suggests it will.

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A super-risky ‘World Series of Poker’ all-in move came so close to paying off in championship-losing hand

This almost worked!

There are times where you have to risk it all in poker.

And there will be times when that risk does NOT pay off, and it’s the worst.

Here, we have a hand from the 2021 World Series of Poker, in the $50,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em High Roller tournament, starring Michael Addamo and Justin Bonomo, who were heads up for the bracelet.

The key here is Bonomo was behind Addamo but not by much — 11,340,000 chips to Addamo’s 12,960,000. Bonomo raised to 450,000 with 10 of diamonds and 9 of spades. Addamo raised right back to 1.8 million with the King and Jack of hearts, a better hand for sure.

Then, things got nuts. Bonomo went all in. Was it a bluff? Did he read something on Addamo that showed weakness? Addamo had to think about it and rightfully so — King-Jack suited is a good hand in a heads-up scenario but I personally felt like Bonomo was representing at least an Ace.

Addamo called, and the flop was a 10-Jack-Queen. Addamo got a pair of Jacks and Bonomo had a pair of 10s. Then? Another 10 comes out. HOLY COW.

Addamo needed an Ace or a Jack and he had a 14 percent chance at one.

Guess what came out? An Ace for the straight. Addamo won the whole tournament on that wild hand:

The two of them went head to head earlier in the tournament with another wild hand in which Addamo bluffed with a 9-2 unsuited (!) and Bonomo ended up calling.

WOW.

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Phil Hellmuth dropped so many F-bombs in a furious rant at the World Series of Poker

He was SO MAD.

We’e seen this before from all-time great Phil Hellmuth, known for many a foul-mouthed rant at poker events over the years after losing some tough hands.

And earlier this week, at a 2021 World Series of Poker Stud championship tournament, he delivered another one.

He suffered a bad beat at the final table and lost a few more hands, and as you’ll see in the video below Hellmuth let loose with so many F-bombs (WARNING: There’s some NSFW langauge, even with most of the expletives bleeped out) and some unhinged ranting.

“He pops me on the [expletive] turn with a diamond draw and an ace,” he said at one point. “There’s like one ace left. [Expletive]! How does he get rewarded for that [expletive] [other expletive] play? They [expletive] overplay their hands against me, that’s why I win all these [expletive] tournaments. Miracle [expletive] river.”

Whew.

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