Phil Hellmuth Quotes

I like to play cards. I'm not very good, because I don't want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I've learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker.

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've been able to not only be a fighter, but a thinking fighter, where I can use my insight into the business and politics of the sport to make my decisions.

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.

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

Poker is all about comfort with uncertainty, after all.

Poker isn't the roulette wheel of pure chance, nor is it the chess of mathematical elegance and perfect information. Apart from the underlying mathematics, poker depends on the nuanced reading of human intention, interactions, and deceptions.

I've always made my decisions based on two factors: intellectual analysis and my gut. And when they meet, that's a go from me. That's when I see the goal.

I think one of the interesting things about poker is that once you let your ego in, you're done for.

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.

Poker is a game where you don't have to have the best hand to win. Poker is really reading other people and reading human emotion, which certainly comes into play in business.

Anybody can do a deal. The tough part is doing the deal at the right time, being strategic.

When the President is a moralist, he needs a process that will make up for the natural shortcomings of such a style—an inattention to second-step thinking, an allergy to detail, a tendency not to see the point of having dissenters, a habit of allowing certainty to override considerations of risk. It is the National Security Advisor’s responsibility to fill a President’s strategic gaps, not to exacerbate them.

Among a great many other things that chess teaches you is to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good. It trains you to think before grabbing and to think just as objectively when you're in trouble.

Father was bold, and Mother was cautious. They never shouted at each other but argued constantly about strategy, and they taught me very early that before taking big risks, one must carefully figure the odds.

You have to be just as mistrustful of straightforward rationality in business as you do of a uniquely gut approach.

Throughout his remarkable business and government career, Robert Rubin, now 65, has both worked exhaustively at reaching well-founded conclusions and rejected the idea that anything - and he means anything - can be a 'provable certainty.'

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

In poker, you want to play the weaker guys. In chess, it's the opposite.

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.

I understand now the different games and the different approaches that you need to take at different times, with different styles of play.

Bluffing is most effective when done sporadically; bluff too often, and you'll blow your credibility.

Swallow your pride and be completely objective about your own poker skill level. Only then can you implement an effective betting strategy.

Look, for some players, pot odds should guide your decision making.