Poker World Continues To Talk about Phil Hellmuth's Rant

Published on October 14th, 2021 1:16 pm EST

If a "no-name" poker player went on an expletive-filled, multi-minute rant when they threatened to "burn this place down", what would happen to them?

At the bare minimum, they would be given a penalty and told to leave the table for a certain period of time.

In reality, they'd likely be disqualified from the tournament, and perhaps even banned from the casino.

So why does Phil Hellmuth continue to get away with it?

Earlier this week, Phil Hellmuth lost his mind while playing at the $10k Stud final table.

Here is his rant:



If you don't want to watch the entire clip, @SrslySirius has a good overview here:

Phil Hellmuth is a scumbag pic.twitter.com/MllVlrY3zi

— Thomas Keeling (@SrslySirius) October 12, 2021

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Many poker players and fans of the game took Hellmuth to task for his outburst.

Sure, some people tried to say that "Phil was being Phil", though many pointed out the hypocrisy in allowing Hellmuth to get away with this type of behavior, while other players would certainly face potentially severe punishment.

Hellmuth, who cares greatly about what other poker players think about him, eventually took to his Twitter account to respond to the criticism, saying that he "went too far".

On the other hand, it was a non-apology as he said that the person who received the brunt of his criticism, Ant Zinno, "loves him". Also, he claims that he didn't throw the cards at the dealer, and he was just "joking" about the burning the place down line.

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At the end of the day, Hellmuth will never change his behavior if he never faces any real punishment for his actions. His supporters will explain it away, saying that it's all part of his persona and that he loves to "win".

At the same time, other players will continue to get penalized for much, much less.

Is that fair?

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Filed Under: Other Poker News