http://www.philhellmuth.com/phil-hellmuth-poker-blog.html?id=1758
My Biggest Loss EVER!
March 30, 2007
I'm sorry I haven't been writing any entries lately - over five months now! I have had some great stuff happen. Like sitting on the floor of the Golden State Warriors game three times--$1,500 a seat--and having NBA players come up and chat with me at halftime or after the game (Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Shawn Marrion, Malik Rose, Robert Horry, Michael Finley and others). Or having the Warriors put me on the jumbotron saying hi to the fans, and "Go Warriors." They are a fun team to watch this year, no doubt about it.
"Poker Brat" the movie was almost greenlit several times since December, and may well be greenlit quite soon. We have launched a new Endurance formula drink called "Pro Player" (drinkproplayer.com) for poker players, the "Pick up with out the let down." It tastes like mountain dew, delicious! I will drinking one everyday at the WSOP this year. Pro Player has done so well already, that we have begun the process of taking the brand public.
I was asked to be the new face of the 2008 WSOP PS3 game, coming out in September. It will include "Poker Brat mode," where you can me heads up, and here a few of my classic lines (something about if it weren't for luck…"). I will be on the cover, in the ESPN commercials, and in the print media, etc.
I have launched "Poker Brat Clothing Company" and "Phil's House Publishing" companies. Look for hats, shirts, and my hockey jersey soon. As well as a new auto-biography called "Poker Brat" by the end of the year. I have my latest and greatest MP4 poker course out at blackbeltphil.com, and you can watch this one on your IPOD or cell phone. The white belt portion, as well as a few of the other belts are a lot of what I teach in my books and DVD's, but the black belt will blow you away! Amazingly, the new course is five and a half hours long.
Right now I'm in Monte Carlo, in a $1,000 Euro a night suite with a view that is out of this world, and Monday night I spent a record $4,000 (record for me so far) on a bottle of 1967 Chateau D' YQuiem, yum-yum! Big pimpin! Tuesday night I had dinner with Moneymaker and Raymer, and played 17 card Chinese poker (one five card high hand at back, then five card 2-7 hand, then four card Badugi hand, then three card high hand at front) for $500 a point. I broke even, and those guys are both not only great guys, but awesome ambassadors for poker.
After dinner, I walked back to my hotel where I ran into Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey in the lobby. I started playing Chinese poker with them for $1,000 a point, and things went south quickly. The next thing you know, I was losing $83,000, and I decided to play for $2,000 a point. Things got even worse, and pretty soon I was $180,000 loser, and heading off to Ivey's suite for room service and criss-cross Chinese poker (where you play four hands, two vs. two). Remember that there is no great skill in Chinese poker, and I'm sure that Ivey and I both play it about the same. In any case, things continued to get worse, and the next thing you know I was over $500,000 loser. Understand, mind you, that my biggest loss ever in one session was $135,000 (about $105,000 of which was mine). I was freaked out, and shocked. At 10:00 am we quit, and I was losing $536,000. The very reason I avoid the big game at the Bellagio, in fact my stated reason is this, "I never want to have to lose $500,000 in one day." Thus one of my worst fears in poker has come to pass.
I had signed up for day one of the Monte Carlo EPT the night before, and I knew it began 2:00 P.M.. But how could I care about this tournament after what I had just suffered? Would I let one big loss destroy me? Other people have, but I'm not other people. Obviously this wouldn't bust me, but it still kinda felt that way. How do you recover from the biggest and most brutal loss of your life to play in a tournament a few hours later? You sleep in, you walk 25 minutes to the event, grab a cappuccino on the way, and listen to music like Styx's "Fooling Yourself" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," right? Well, that helped a little bit, but not too much. So I show up at 7:15 pm, over five hours late, and they look around for my seat for 30 minutes or so, before telling me, "Phil, you have to play tomorrow." I really want to hop in the tournament at that moment, just to get back on the horse, even if I only have $12,600 left of the $15,000 starting chips. I'm chomping at the bit to play! But I know in my heart of hearts that I caught a break. Having 20 hours to rest, to absorb the loss, to call my wife (ouch!), to relax, to plot, is certainly better than hopping in now; where I may just blow off all of my chips in minutes due to a new condition I call "Extreme Poker Stress."
So what do I do? I walk back to my hotel, my thoughts racing: "If only I had walked into my hotel 20 minutes earlier, sigh. Should I spend $10,000 on a bottle of wine? No more commercial flights for me, if I'm willing to lose $500,000 in one night. Should I play Ivey again tonight or this trip? What will my wife think when I tell her I lost $500K! How could I be so unlucky? How could I mange my money so poorly? Is my ego that out of whack? How do I take this huge negative, and turn it into me tapping into all of my power right now?" And on and on my thoughts race, when finally I decide that I have to turn this toxic experience into something positive; I have to learn some lessons from this. Isn't there a silver lining here somewhere? I decide to call my wife and order her ("Please honey do this now") to send $50,000 to charity (I was initially thinking "Habitat for Humanity" as we gave them money in 2006) that very moment, and pay down the mortgage quite a ways. My wife and I decide to give $25,000 to "Doctors without Borders" and $25,000 to "Heifer International" and pay down the mortgage. So, at noon on Wednesday in Palo Alto, my wife mailed off the checks, and wired the money to the mortgage company.
Giving to charity makes me feel great about winning big and setting records. Giving to charity gives me clarity! Bottom line: giving to charity increases my own sense of entitlement. Now I feel like my poker bankroll is in trouble (it isn't), now I feel like I should use all of my powers, and that I will use all of my powers!! Hopefully, I'll remain at the top of my powers all the way through the 2007 World Series of Poker. Now we will see what a "full powered" Phil Hellmuth can do the next few days, the next few weeks, and the next few months! Someday soon, I hope to thank Phil Ivey for crushing me!
My Biggest Loss EVER!
March 30, 2007
I'm sorry I haven't been writing any entries lately - over five months now! I have had some great stuff happen. Like sitting on the floor of the Golden State Warriors game three times--$1,500 a seat--and having NBA players come up and chat with me at halftime or after the game (Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Shawn Marrion, Malik Rose, Robert Horry, Michael Finley and others). Or having the Warriors put me on the jumbotron saying hi to the fans, and "Go Warriors." They are a fun team to watch this year, no doubt about it.
"Poker Brat" the movie was almost greenlit several times since December, and may well be greenlit quite soon. We have launched a new Endurance formula drink called "Pro Player" (drinkproplayer.com) for poker players, the "Pick up with out the let down." It tastes like mountain dew, delicious! I will drinking one everyday at the WSOP this year. Pro Player has done so well already, that we have begun the process of taking the brand public.
I was asked to be the new face of the 2008 WSOP PS3 game, coming out in September. It will include "Poker Brat mode," where you can me heads up, and here a few of my classic lines (something about if it weren't for luck…"). I will be on the cover, in the ESPN commercials, and in the print media, etc.
I have launched "Poker Brat Clothing Company" and "Phil's House Publishing" companies. Look for hats, shirts, and my hockey jersey soon. As well as a new auto-biography called "Poker Brat" by the end of the year. I have my latest and greatest MP4 poker course out at blackbeltphil.com, and you can watch this one on your IPOD or cell phone. The white belt portion, as well as a few of the other belts are a lot of what I teach in my books and DVD's, but the black belt will blow you away! Amazingly, the new course is five and a half hours long.
Right now I'm in Monte Carlo, in a $1,000 Euro a night suite with a view that is out of this world, and Monday night I spent a record $4,000 (record for me so far) on a bottle of 1967 Chateau D' YQuiem, yum-yum! Big pimpin! Tuesday night I had dinner with Moneymaker and Raymer, and played 17 card Chinese poker (one five card high hand at back, then five card 2-7 hand, then four card Badugi hand, then three card high hand at front) for $500 a point. I broke even, and those guys are both not only great guys, but awesome ambassadors for poker.
After dinner, I walked back to my hotel where I ran into Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey in the lobby. I started playing Chinese poker with them for $1,000 a point, and things went south quickly. The next thing you know, I was losing $83,000, and I decided to play for $2,000 a point. Things got even worse, and pretty soon I was $180,000 loser, and heading off to Ivey's suite for room service and criss-cross Chinese poker (where you play four hands, two vs. two). Remember that there is no great skill in Chinese poker, and I'm sure that Ivey and I both play it about the same. In any case, things continued to get worse, and the next thing you know I was over $500,000 loser. Understand, mind you, that my biggest loss ever in one session was $135,000 (about $105,000 of which was mine). I was freaked out, and shocked. At 10:00 am we quit, and I was losing $536,000. The very reason I avoid the big game at the Bellagio, in fact my stated reason is this, "I never want to have to lose $500,000 in one day." Thus one of my worst fears in poker has come to pass.
I had signed up for day one of the Monte Carlo EPT the night before, and I knew it began 2:00 P.M.. But how could I care about this tournament after what I had just suffered? Would I let one big loss destroy me? Other people have, but I'm not other people. Obviously this wouldn't bust me, but it still kinda felt that way. How do you recover from the biggest and most brutal loss of your life to play in a tournament a few hours later? You sleep in, you walk 25 minutes to the event, grab a cappuccino on the way, and listen to music like Styx's "Fooling Yourself" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," right? Well, that helped a little bit, but not too much. So I show up at 7:15 pm, over five hours late, and they look around for my seat for 30 minutes or so, before telling me, "Phil, you have to play tomorrow." I really want to hop in the tournament at that moment, just to get back on the horse, even if I only have $12,600 left of the $15,000 starting chips. I'm chomping at the bit to play! But I know in my heart of hearts that I caught a break. Having 20 hours to rest, to absorb the loss, to call my wife (ouch!), to relax, to plot, is certainly better than hopping in now; where I may just blow off all of my chips in minutes due to a new condition I call "Extreme Poker Stress."
So what do I do? I walk back to my hotel, my thoughts racing: "If only I had walked into my hotel 20 minutes earlier, sigh. Should I spend $10,000 on a bottle of wine? No more commercial flights for me, if I'm willing to lose $500,000 in one night. Should I play Ivey again tonight or this trip? What will my wife think when I tell her I lost $500K! How could I be so unlucky? How could I mange my money so poorly? Is my ego that out of whack? How do I take this huge negative, and turn it into me tapping into all of my power right now?" And on and on my thoughts race, when finally I decide that I have to turn this toxic experience into something positive; I have to learn some lessons from this. Isn't there a silver lining here somewhere? I decide to call my wife and order her ("Please honey do this now") to send $50,000 to charity (I was initially thinking "Habitat for Humanity" as we gave them money in 2006) that very moment, and pay down the mortgage quite a ways. My wife and I decide to give $25,000 to "Doctors without Borders" and $25,000 to "Heifer International" and pay down the mortgage. So, at noon on Wednesday in Palo Alto, my wife mailed off the checks, and wired the money to the mortgage company.
Giving to charity makes me feel great about winning big and setting records. Giving to charity gives me clarity! Bottom line: giving to charity increases my own sense of entitlement. Now I feel like my poker bankroll is in trouble (it isn't), now I feel like I should use all of my powers, and that I will use all of my powers!! Hopefully, I'll remain at the top of my powers all the way through the 2007 World Series of Poker. Now we will see what a "full powered" Phil Hellmuth can do the next few days, the next few weeks, and the next few months! Someday soon, I hope to thank Phil Ivey for crushing me!
uppy: Not only did he get hustled, he still doesn't realize it.
hno:
