Heads up limit is the dumbest thing Ive ever heard of.

typical phil and plus that reading that format made my head hurt.

Almost every time Hellmuth plays online, I hear a story like this. The distressing part is that they're all true.

You'd think that either UB likes having him blow up, to kinda draw people over to watch the spectacle/circus, or they have to be getting miffed at him pissing off the paying customers...

they definitely want him to blow up. thats why a lot of average players would want to play against him.

I think there are two seperate subsets and two arguments.

1) The average player wants to see the blowup, like you said. He plays at several different levels. At the lower levels, it's gravy to UB because everybody wants to beat Phil Hellmuth, whether he plays under his name or under the other account he peruses the $100 NL with (ID escapes me currently).

2) The 300/600 player would likely just be turned off at the lack of professionalism. I mean, at my paltry 20 BB buy-in stack for limit, that's still $12,000 to sit at the table. I saw Thomas Keller (thunderkeller) playing 300/600 with like $25k in front of him. If he got sucked out on, it was just "nh." With Hellmuth playing against a guy like Prahlad Friedman or Dustin Woolf (neverwin), I can almost see it being a turn-off.

I think it's half-act, half-serious, but I think he needs to watch himself because if he starts to piss off the whales in UB's waters and they go to leave, he won't be far behind.

I too saw him "loose it" some time ago on ub. It just made me think "what a spoiled little man"

So Phil actually sits down and plays the $100 NL games?

Does anyone know what his username is?

...no wonder...don't guess he's ever did a day's real work in his life.

If the high stakes players left UB on day the profits would hardly dip. The max rake for the 50/100 NL game seems to be $2 which seems rediculously low, I mean, for low limit player the rake is an issue that turns what would be marginal wins into losing sessions. Would the big player be particularly bothered if the max rake was $5, $10? Of course in theory it would be beneficial for them to play on Prima.

The real benefit is that people keep an eye on the biggest games, be it pure astonishment, idol worship, trying to pick up clues on how the best play etc. As a result of this people talk about these games to others, therefore free advertising for the cardroom.

As to whether Phil drives players away, take note of when Hellmuth plays the table is full and there can be up to 12 player on the waiting list. People know Hellmuths blows up and the reputation he has for being abysmal at cash games,, the players want him to blow up, it's in their favour. Then again, if the 50/100NL game is heads up or full, the rake isn't affected.

Molina