Battles on the poker table... inspiration from Phil Hellmuth
The more experienced players among you will be familiar with that feeling you get when you’re short stacked in a tournament. You feel like a victim in a playground. You’re constantly being bullied by everyone who’s bigger than you are and the best weapon in your poker arsenal isn’t firing: Your confidence!
HOW TO WAGE THE WAR The following incident, recounted directly by one of only three men in the world to own ten World Series of Poker bracelets, Phil “Poker brat” Hellmuth, makes interesting, educational and inspiring reading for anyone caught in a short stacked situation. “While playing in the Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic’s $1,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em tournament, I found myself down to $300. Short stacked, I folded my next two hands upset that I was going to be eliminated. However, if I was going down, and with just $300 left it sure looked like I was going down, I decided I’d give myself the chance to go down calmly. Under the gun, I moved all-in with Ace-Ten of Clubs, and was called by the button and the big blind. I scooped the $1,000 pot when the board came down Ace-King-Queen-Five-Seven. Next hand while in the small blind, Kenny “Skyhawk” Flaton raised two off the button with Seven-Seven, and I moved all-in for $800 total with Ace-Queen of Spades. When a Queen hit the board, I won the $1,800 pot. Next hand, on the button, I picked up Queen-Queen, and raised one player that had called the $200 bet. Everyone folded and now I had $2,300. The very next hand I picked up Jack-Jack, and moved all-in when someone else opened with Ace-Queen. The Ace-Queen called me and my Jack-Jack won the $4,900 pot. Three hands later, I was under the gun again, this time with Ace-Ace. I opened for $600 and Skyhawk raised me $2,400 more from the small blind. I moved all-in and Skyhawk quickly called and flipped up Queen-Queen. My Ace-Ace held up and now I had exactly $10,000! After being down to $300 it seemed like a lot of chips to me and I felt confident that I would run it up again. I fought and fought and when we reached the final table, I had chip lead with over $60,000!” Phew! Blow by blow direct from Super Brat’s mighty mouth. So now you know. The next time you’re short stacked down to your last few bucks at a tournament, make a fight of it Hellmuth style! Check out www.philhellmuth.com for more words of wisdom from the Champ himself.
