Category: Gambling and Casinos

One of the most controversial players in the world of poker, Phil Hellmuth, Jr. is often known by the not-so-affectionate moniker of “The Poker Brat.” But while his antics at the table have been known to ruffle a few feathers, Hellmuth has also been one of the most dominating players over the course of his career. In fact, many fans of the game view him as the face of professional poker, especially Texas Hold ’em.

Born July 16th, 1964 in Madison, Wisconsin, Phillip J. Hellmuth, Jr. was the oldest of five children. Being the son of a successful university assistant dean, Phil excelled in school and looked poised to follow in his father’s academic footsteps. Fate, however, had other plans.

Phil enrolled in the University of Wisconsin, and it was here that his poker career got off the ground. He was initially invited to play in cash poker games at the student union, but soon found that the low-dollar games didn’t present enough of a challenge. Months later, he was competing against professors and other members of the campus community in $100 buy-in games. Hellmuth did so well that he was able to pay off his student loans and still have a $20,000 bankroll left over. At this point, he dropped out of college in his junior year and became a professional poker player.

In 1989, the 24-year-old Hellmuth defeated Johnny Chan to become the youngest champion of the World Series of Poker main event. As of 2006, he has won an impressive nine World Series of Poker bracelets (bracelets are awarded to tournament winners), all in the Texas Hold ’em events. He was the season three champion of Late Night Poker, and he defeated Chris Ferguson in 2005 to win the inaugural National Heads-Up Poker Championship. As of 2006, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,200,000.

His World Series of Poker accomplishments include: first place finishes in The Championship Event in 1989, Limit Hold ’em in 1992, 1993, and 2003, two No Limit Hold ’em events in 1993, one in 2001, and one in 2003, and Pot Limit Hold ’em in 1997.

However, for all his accomplishments, Phil has yet to win at the final table of a World Poker Tour event. He finished fourth at the Lucky Chances event (season one) and third at Foxwoods (season two). No doubt, this brings a smile to the face of his detractors.

Hellmuth is also involved in many ventures away from the card table. He frequently contributes to Card Player Magazine, as well as having penned Play Poker like the Pros, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, Poker Brat (which was on the best-seller list for a month), and The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played. He has also made several instructional videos, including Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Poker Secrets. He is a spokesperson for the Ultimate Bet online poker room, and has been collaborating with Oakley on a signature line of sunglasses (no doubt, to compliment his signature line of clothing). Phil also writes a syndicated column which is printed in over 40 U.S. newspapers.

When he’s not traveling around the world playing poker, Hellmuth makes his home in Palo Alto, California with his wife Katherine (a psychiatrist at Stanford University) and two sons, Phillip III and Nicholas. His favorite food is salmon, while his favorite music and movies range from Pearl Jam and The American President to The Rolling Stones and The Matrix.

He estimates that his skill at poker and fondness for self-promotion may earn him as much as $400,000,000 in his lifetime. Then again, would you expect anything less from the face of modern professional poker?

Phil Hellmuth can come off as a cocky guy, but let’s face it he has something to be cocky about. Hellmuth has won a record breaking eleven bracelets all in Hold ‘Em mind you. Although he has said statements like “If luck weren’t involved, I guess I’d win every one” you can’t help but appreciate his skill. The “poker brat” as he known has written a book titled Play Poker like the Pros. His book is not exactly what I would call helpful. It is boastful and unhelpful for the most part.

For starters I can do without the long-winded I am so great speech. Too much of the book was dedicated to reminding you why you should take his advice, probably to recompense for the bitter taste his antics leave in your mouth. The book goes into detail about his successful career and his conservative playing style. None of this of course helps the reader. If he and his editors felt it necessary to discuss this then they should have put it in the preface.

Hellmuth makes a big to do about pre-flop choices. He urges players to hold on to pairs, because they can mostly end up profitable. Well, thank goodness for those saps taking his advice, because they are making me money. Hellmuth’s disciples are predictable creatures. In a game of instinct you cannot stick to a procedure. Hellmuth’s instruction cause players to develop distinct playing habits and makes them easy to pick off.

In addition to misguiding new players Hellmuth just down right decides to not inform them at all about the techniques that really make you money. Hellmuth as well as the other poker greats all derive their success from being able to read their opponents. The ability to urge on competition when they have a weak hand and scare them off when they have a strong hand is the powerful secret that he keeps to himself.

Hellmuth’s advice contradicts itself constantly. He gives you a series of scenarios similar to, “if you get hand A you should never fold at stage C, unless a player has hand B.” Which is a issue, because how are you supposed to what hand a player has. The book is filled with “what the heck” moments.

The book does have a small section where Hellmuth compares different kinds of playing styles to animals. It is quite a chuckle that this man considers himself some kind of poker Zen master distributing animal characteristics to playing styles like kung-fu styles.

The most annoying part of his book is the constant interruptions. Hellmuth will be in the middle of explaining an aspect of limit hold’em and he starts giving you a story about no-limit hold’em. His tales of poker pros usually have nothing to do with the advice he was giving to you, and if it is in correlation it usually contradicts what he was telling you to do.

If you want to buy a book on how to play poker please don’t buy this book, because it is a story about Hellmuth’s career and his big win and poker pro friends.

After numerous frustrating finishes, Tony Stewart finally won at NASCAR’s most famous track. Stewart dominated the rain-delayed Pepsi 400 last year, but still needed a dramatic four-wide pass to move to the front, then pulled away on a restart with nine laps left to seal his first Nextel Cup victory in 14 starts at Daytona International Speedway. “Winning this race at the Daytona 500 or at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the best win a driver could ever have” Stewart said. But Stewart will settle for this for now, he celebrated by climbing the fence into the flag stand to claim the checkered flag. It was his second consecutive victory and showed that the 2002 series champion can still be a contender. He started from the pole, led a race-record 151 of 160 laps, and moved to third in the standings Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, but the history of auto racing at Daytona goes back much farther than that. In 1936, the precursor to today’s Daytona 500 was born on a course that went down 1.5 miles of highway.

William H.G. France, a mechanic and racer who’d moved south from Washington, D.C., eventually took over the job of running the beach races on the second of two courses used for those events. In 1947, he presided over a meeting at Daytona’s Streamline Hotel where NASCAR was born.

A decade later, France began working on his showplace. “Big Bill” France was building it, he insisted on 31-degree banking in the corners. That’s as steep as he could make the turns and still keep the machines putting down the asphalt from tipping over.

When drivers gathered for the first Daytona 500, it was an eye-popping experience. Drivers were more accustomed to half-mile dirt tracks and saw the 1.366-mile paved track at Darlington.

Bob Welborn ran 140.121 mph to win the pole for the first Daytona 500, and Lee Petty won in a photo finish over Johnny Beauchamp. It was at Daytona International Speedway where Junior Johnson discovered that if he tucked his car right behind another one, he could go faster than he could run by himself. And drafting became a part of the sport.

Get the latest NASCAR odds at WagerWeb.com

Playing slot machines with only one penny seems awfully cheap. Actually, it is cheap but it is exactly what the casinos want you to think.

Gone are the days of the simple 3 reel slot machine, today’s machines are gigantic multiline slot machines who have been developed to include any money making trick known in the book. In the comfort department, today’s slot machines have improved to accept dollar bills instead of only coins and can give prizes in the form of redeemable tickets, all in order to make the player as comfortable as possible.

The biggest change in modern slot machines is the addition of many more pay lines (a modern slot machine will have at least 20 pay lines and some reach a lot higher) which of course requires many more coins in order to activate all of them. With machine that costs 50c per spin but offers 20 pay lines, the cost per spin can easily reach 10$, and suddenly the old “pay less win more” slot machine has become a financial burden on the average gambler. For those who say “play only the minimum lines”, we will remind that in order to win the biggest prizes (and the jackpot, of course if available) you must play the maximum number of lines or your profits will be very slim.

In order to make the players less aware of the cost of playing these slot machines the casinos have come up with 1 penny slot machines. That’s right, 1c per spin. This has become the hottest trend in the casino’s slot machine floor and the low denomination has attracted numerous gamblers who now think that playing slot machines has become much cheaper. The focus though has turned into the multiple pay lines which require multiple points in order to maximize profits. Machines exist which will require more than 1500 coin per spin! This makes the average spin cost almost the same as the regular 50c machine.

Are Penny slot machines a sucker’s bet? Not necessarily. These machines are perfect for a player who came to the casino with the intention of spending a few hours of fun without committing too much money to the casino. On the other hand, those who like to suck every ounce of edge out of the machine and will never settle for anything than less the maximum payout will find better options elsewhere.

By the way you might have noticed some famous jackpots being offered in the penny slot machines, be assure that all in all playing the jackpot in a 1 penny machine and 1 dollar machine has no difference as the total amount required to gamble to be eligible for the jackpot is the same.