Often referred to as the best tournament player in history, Phil Hellmuth is above all one of the most colorful personas that the poker community has ever seen. Having said that, despite his undoubted poker success over the last thirty years, we’re quite confident that he would not be one of our most outstanding students.
Why is that?
One of the best-known professional poker players
Phil Hellmuth is not only a famous poker player but also a poker celebrity. Although we’ve seen him in countless televised high-stakes cash games, Phil is mostly a tournament player. We’ve got to admit – his resume is quite impressive. Hellmuth cashed over $29 million during his poker career, which is good enough for 17th place on the all-time money list.
He also owns 17 World Series of Poker bracelets (including two main event ones) – that’s six more than either Doyle Brunson, Johny Chan, or Phil Ivey.
So why do we assume Phil is not a material for a high-stakes Spin & Go star? Because playing at the highest limit of Spins requires qualities that even some top poker players don’t have.
Playing Spins for a living requires you to study a lot
The poker game constantly changes in every format, but this is especially true for Spin & Go’s. It’s one of the youngest and fastest formats out there. Despite the stacks being shallow at first glance, there is a lot of depth in the Spin & Go strategy.
Due to the high volume, common mistakes may cost you a lot. Unawareness of leaks usually causes most players to commit the same mistakes repeatedly, which hurts their overall winnings badly.
There’s also a bright side to that; the repeatability of many situations makes them easier to practice and, in consequence, to master. At Smart Spin we have strategies for all of the most common preflop and postflop scenarios, making them relatively easy to navigate for our students.
A sound and solid understanding of basic poker principles is a core ability of every elite poker player. We can’t know for sure, but we’d bet our money that Phill could learn a thing or two, even from our mid-stakes players.
Exploitative poker is great but it’s the theory that makes you stand out from the others
The development of software forever changed how we think about and how we play poker. Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to find solutions for many poker problems.
The rise of GTO solvers (i.e. the software which dictates the optimal ways of playing in many difficult spots) sparked the debate whether it’s better to play exploitative poker focused on capitalizing on your opponents’ mistakes or to strive to play as close to equilibrium as possible.
There is no simple answer to this question, and as it’s quite often true in poker, the right approach is dictated by many ever-changing variables.
We already know for sure that studying how poker should be played in theory helps our players understand when and why they should consider making an exploitative play.
Think about it that way: only if you know what’s theoretically correct you’ll be able to spot leaks in your opponents’ game and capitalize on them. Such a high level of self-awareness is a powerful weapon against both elite and recreational players. The better you understand what’s the play in certain situations, the easier it is to come up with counter-strategies.
Phil Hellmuth is known for his exploitative approach and unorthodox plays. Given he probably had developed a great intuition over his poker career, he’s able to make some of his wild ideas work on the live felt but we’re pretty sure his overall game plan would be verified quite harshly by some tougher Spin opponents.
Funnily enough, we did not have to look too long for a hand played very far from the game theory. Needless to say, it backfired badly.
A good mindset is what separates the elite poker players from the rest of the pack
We got to the area which Phil is best known for: a poker mindset, or the lack thereof. Despite playing for over 30 years, Phil’s mental leaks are still very much alive and well. It’s baffling to see someone with such knowledge and experience and who has been winning for over a few decades, acting the way he acts.
It’s safe to assume that some of Hellmuth’s behaviors may be a bit overacted, but there’s enough evidence that his mindset is far from top-notch.
Most forms of tilt are pretty easy to manage while playing at one table at the casino, where you can stand up, take a few minutes off, stretch yourself, or take a few deep breaths. The same is not necessarily true for online poker. When you play multiple tables at once, it’s essential to keep your composure as long as possible.
Every professional poker player knows the importance of a poker mindset in the long run, and so do we. But somehow even with a mental game of a teenager, Phil managed to be successful over all these years while many players didn’t.
That’s why we’ve prepared a vast library of mindset materials that help our players combat the most common mental leaks and boost their confidence in their poker ability at the same time.
Once again, it wasn’t too hard to find an example of Phil Hellmuth losing his mind at the poker table. In this clip, you’ll see one of the most popular YouTubers on Earth – MrBeast – attempting to bluff Phil, only to find out he was, in fact, value betting.
Even we wouldn’t transform Phil Hellmuth into a Spin & Go crusher but maybe we have a chance with you?
This article is meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek but the takeaway couldn’t be more serious.
Not everyone can become a high-stakes Spins crusher, even poker players with outstanding resumes.
However, almost everyone can develop their game to a level at which they’re aware of their mistakes and are making slow but steady progress.
We believe that our training programs, bankroll management rules, coaches, and community have what’s needed to take the game of pretty much everyone to the next level. We’ve proven it with hundreds of players, and we’re eager to continue this great streak. Would you like to find out whether you have what it takes to join the elite group of best Spin & Go players in the world? Check the details of our offer: