No stranger to name-dropping, Phil Hellmuth recently noted an offer he got to play poker with Michael Jordan, and expressed his remorse for turning it down.
appearing on NESN Chicken Dinner Podcast17 times World Series of Poker Description Winner bracelet meet six times NBA League champion five times best player many times. One of those interactions involved a poker challenge, which Hellmuth had to decline.
Poker brat rejects Air Jordan
Jordan has a long-standing reputation as a gambler, and with an estimated net worth of $2 billion, the bets can get big. The DraftKings investor is known for making huge bets on everything from the golf course to the casino. When he played in NBAhis Chicago Bulls teammates said he would go so far as to bet on which of their bags would exit the baggage claim first, not realizing he had bribed the worker to put his bags at the front of the line.
According to Hellmuth, Jordan enjoys several poker games, including no-limit Badugi. He said the offer to play poker came after hanging out with NBA Legend many times
Podcast host Sam Panayotowicz and Helmuth discussed some of the factors involved in playing against Jordan, who is obviously known for his long sessions at the table. Helmuth was eventually forced to decline the invitation.
“He challenged me one time and I didn’t have a lot of money in the city,” Helmuth said. “I was stupid. I should have called my friends and said, ‘Hey, (send me some money).’ And (Jordan) wanted to play until seven in the morning.”
Jordan’s love of long sessions was confirmed by Charles Barkley, who played regularly in a game that included Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Magic Johnson. Barkley added that Jordan would often try to “buy off” the bets he played in, knowing he had more money to work with than his opponents.
“He’ll crush you,” Helmuth admitted. “But I’m not a 23-year-old guy playing his first session with MJ. It’s me [would] Be like, “I’m leaving.” I [would have given] The lead time is one hour, which is reasonable.
Helmuth, a longtime Jordan fan, said the basketball player once got out of his limousine to say hello to the poker player. The two have interacted several times over the years, including a time that witnessed Jordan win a charity poker tournament in Minnesota.
2022 WSOP Player of the Year winner Josh Arieh has experience gambling with Jordan on both the golf course and poker, and he said on Card operator Poker Stories Podcast “It was a terrible experience” due to Jordan’s relentless bad talk.
Fellow six times WSOP Bracelet winner Layne Flack also shared a story on the podcast, explaining that he was recruited by the Chicago mafia to play in Jordan’s home game. However, Flack was not invited, after he was revealed as a professional Late Night with David Letterman.
Critical conversations
In addition to that story, Poker Brat talked about appearing on PokerGO’s site No gamble, no future Cash gaming, NFTs, selling stocks, and working as a consultant with different companies. Helmuth also revealed the financial ups and downs he’s faced, including a recent $180,000 losing session, and how he and his wife dealt with those kinds of losses.
“Cash becomes a commodity for us in poker,” he said. “We joke about it because I don’t sweat the small stuff at all. My wife says, ‘We had to pay that bill.’” I told her, early in our marriage, that I didn’t want to hear about anything under $10,000 because I wanted to stay focused. On the big money. And I’ve kind of come to terms with that. We’ve been together for 33 years and I refuse to have her bring me the little things of money.
The discussion included whether it would be easy to marry Helmuth.
He said: “It’s not about financial fluctuations, because money is a great friend of mine, and I have faith that I will always have money.” She was nervous about money in a normal, reasonable human way. But for me, I’m like, “Whatever it is, when I’m 76, we’ll have a billion dollars.” it’s coming.”
*Image source – PokerGO
