Poker Hall of Fame member Phil Hellmuth often posted table talk to anger his opponents. Sometimes, like the profanity-laced sermon he unleashed in 2021 world poker championship, His behavior at the table drew criticism from the poker community.
In the first round of the opening PokerGO Showdown At Aria in Las Vegas, 16 times WSOP . World Series of Poker The bracelet winner found himself on the receiving end of verbal abuse. In today’s most talked about match, Hellmuth’s opponent, Maverick Gaming owner Eric Persson, came ready to give Hellmuth a taste of his own medicine.
Although Hellmuth was confident in his usual self, (he had already won NBC Heads up poker tournament In 2005), he was initially friendly with Pearson, asking him about his business. But the polite conversation quickly fizzled out as Pearson began finding some lucky rivers and the helmoth pile began to dwindle.
Verbal sparring escalated as the match continued, and Pearson got under the skin of Hellmuth with his insults. At one point, he threw a double salute with his middle finger after winning a three bet on the turn. (The hand starts at 1:43:15 poker jo broadcast below).
“You might be one of the most obnoxious guys I’ve ever played,” Helmuth said, before the two argued over the prospect of a million-dollar singles match.
Pearson eventually becomes too much for Helmuth to ignore and summons Arya’s tournament director, who issues Pearson a warning. However, Hellmuth couldn’t help himself, and was then warned with a few hands on his own.
Is this the most angry we’ve seen Tweet embed??? pic.twitter.com/kcy45bnywY
– PokerGO April 22 2022
Pearson went on to win the match, pocketing aces after Hellmuth pushed his last short set with K-3. Jeb’s pair grabbed the big and Pearson hit his ticket to the round of 16, where he’ll meet up with Dan Schack.
In his exit interview, Pearson went on to insult Hellmuth, telling fringe reporter Jeff Platt that “the game has passed him by.”
After that, Hellmuth stated that he would never play a game again poker jo An event where Pearson was present.
The poker world was divided over the incident. While most agreed that Pearson was quite out of the line, many also felt that it was some kind of karmic revenge for all the discourses Helmuth had exposed to others over the years.
To his credit, Hellmuth took to Twitter later in the day to take his share of the responsibility.
Tough day for me! My opponent gave me the Double Flying, and was out of line with his verbal attack, but then, I engaged (I’m sure Tweet embed I can find a clip that makes me look bad.) I should have been the better guy, put up with the abuse, and found a way to win our match… #positivity pic.twitter.com/Dbh6UZYmOO
– phil_hellmuth (phil_hellmuth) April 22 2022
As mentioned earlier, the full round-up of 32 broadcasts for the ‘Spades’ and ‘Hearts’ quarters has been published. YouTube PokerGO page. Check it out below:
The Round of 16 and beyond will be exclusive to Poker Joe. The event will begin at noon Pacific for players, with a one-hour broadcast delay. There are plenty of big names left in contention for the $400,000 grand prize in this provocative $25,000 No-Limit event, including three-time bracelet winner Daniel Negriano and three-time bracelet winner Jeremy Osmos. Co-starring Alex Foxen, Sean Winter, and many others.
Here is a look at the updated arc (click the image to enlarge):
