Phil Hellmuth Quotes

Players talk about pot odds all the time, especially when they try to justify a call that they made. Whenever I hear this line of reasoning, though, I can't help but wonder if they properly thought through the consequences of their call.

I like to peruse the Full Contact Poker online forums to read and comment on posts about interesting poker hands and whether they were played properly. I find that many of the contributors consistently suffer from the same problem: they are far too preoccupied with statistically insignificant aspects of a poker hand.

If you call a hundred dollars but have a chance to win $10,000, those are excellent odds if you are at a table with people who have two aces or two kings. If you catch a flop you will get all their chips. I just play them because there is value.

All-star lay downs are all about reading your opponents, trusting your instincts, and then making the right move.

I thought poker might be a perfect environment to start to learn probabilistic decision-making, and to live what it means to have skill versus chance and to see how that played out. I would dive in head first into the poker world.

If you see me playing a $1/$2 no-limit on PokerStars, I'm probably experimenting with something, trying something new seeing how it works.

I learned playing poker that you never count your winnings because that's when you start to lose.

But in a tournament, you can be said in for all your money at any point so you can't make any mistakes so you have to, it's all about where you're sitting at the table.

To be a great poker player, you're going to have to learn this fact: Everything that's said at a poker table is worth listening to. It's all information that you can use to make better decisions, whether people are talking about baseball, politics, or, oh yeah, poker.

Before you even consider making a value bet, try to determine if the bet will have any value at all. Attempt to put your opponent on a hand that he'd likely call a bet with on the river. To do this, you'll have to mentally play back the details of the hand. Think about your opponent's playing tendencies.

Always keep in mind that poker is about limiting your losses and maximizing your gains on every hand you play.

Playing deep-stack, no-limit hold'em is a very complex game where the most critical and difficult decisions come after the flop.

Every poker player is smarter than me.

If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.

World Class players can lay down the toughest hands and play any two cards at any time without fear. Their reads are impeccable.

The ability to perform basic math calculations is certainly an integral part of playing fundamental poker. But in tournament poker, it's equally important to understand that survival often trumps mathematics in coin flip situations.

It's one of my basic premises for tournament play: Choose to bet the lesser amount when a smaller-sized bet will accomplish the same objective as a bigger one.

Less control can be exerted in Limit games because it's more difficult to force players out of pots with structured betting. In No Limit, though, hands can be protected from being outdrawn by making large bets that force opponents to fold weak draws.

Check-raising with a drawing hand on the turn is simply a kamikaze gamble. It might work once in a while, but if you consistently attempt it, too often you'll find yourself watching the rest of the tournament from behind the rail.

Protect your hand when you're confident you're in the lead. Don't be greedy and try to milk your opponent for a few more chips when the pot is already large.

Poker is about understanding human behavior and managing emotions - yours and the other guy's. That's huge in poker, and it's huge in business.

If you read people great then you can become a great No Limit Hold 'Em player.

Chess is a great training ground for poker players because it's a math-based game, much like backgammon is.

Hyper-aggressive poker is most effective in games where players are happy to just call rather than reraise.

In poker, you've got to start at the bottom level and work your way up. This advice applies to the limits that you play and the sizing of the bets that you make.