This may come as no surprise to those of you who know about Phil Hellmuth and his various controversial moments, but he’s involved in another controversy.
This time, it involves something known as “angle-shooting,” which I’ve described as the poker equivalent of balking in baseball — basically, if you make a move like you’re going to fold your cards and you’re not folding? That’s not OK, because then your opponents may react a certain way when they assume you’re folding.
Here’s the situation: During a live-stream of a no-limit Hold ‘Em game, Hellmuth had Ace-9 offsuit with an Ace on the board, and his opponent — a poker streamer known as “Slime” had Ace-6. Slime moved all-in, and Hellmuth let out a, “[Expletive], I just have no idea what to do here.”
That’s when he appeared to slide his covered cards toward the middle of the table. Most people — everyone? — would assume this was a fold.
It was not. And Slime turned his cards over. (WARNING: NSFW language ahead)
This definitely looked like a fold @phil_hellmuth 🤮
Would love to hear some other thoughts? @GmanPoker @RealKidPoker @DougPolkVids pic.twitter.com/xpQb5pibOW
— Josh Duce (@JoshDuce) May 2, 2022
This is angle-shooting, in my opinion. Hellmuth should give this guy the money he won. And others agreed:
on closer look I take back my priot tweet. @phil_hellmuth you have to give him the whole pot and apologize what is this nonsense. https://t.co/knYd9nvqoI
— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) May 2, 2022
#positivity as an ambassador of the sport to fleece 5k from a brand new player. @phil_hellmuth do the right thing when you see this and give him back his $ this is absurd
— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) May 2, 2022
Phil cheating ? Definitely folded. Texas Holdem @phil_hellmuth @Ninja @xQc @MrBeast pic.twitter.com/1vuY3dvEtI
— NOAH 🧞♂️ (@KicksByNoah) May 2, 2022
Hellmuth responded:
Here is the hand. This was completely standard and normal: I did NOTHING wrong. I asked the other players how to handle it, they said to collect $5,000 or $10,000 from my opponent (who was drawing to a 6, three wins). Anyone impugning my integrity is way out of line https://t.co/Tw49NhVHa9
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) May 2, 2022
He should definitely give this guy something back.
