As my facebook friends may or may not know, I played 5/10 with Phil Hellmuth and David Lee of the Warriors last weekend. The game was as soft as they come.

Phil crushed it and was up about 5 BI when the game was 3.5 and lost a little bit (to me) when it went up to 5/10 when he triple barreled his top pair hand when I made a shitty two pair on the river. The board was 3 flushed and 4 straighted with a gap and he clearly should have checked back but he decided to value town himself.

Anyhow...

On the man himself. He was clearly there with David Lee as a friend to play some poker and have a drink and have a good time. I thought he was incredibly nice, willing to talk with anyone about anything, and generally great to have at the table. There were absolute idiots approaching the table and saying the stupidest shit imaginable and Phil handled each one with grace and manners. I was impressed.

At the end of the night, a new player who was a total fuckin douche bag told phil that he wanted to buy his Aria hat off of him to give to a friend who was a huge fan. Immediately I thought, "no don't do that man, your DNA is in there and what not...". Phil initially said no because he auctions them off at various charity poker tournaments he does and the proceeds go to different causes. It was the perfect cover story. They guy just looks at the table and says, "okay! I get it, the answer is NO. Phil won't sell the hat" in a manner confirming to us that Phil is an asshole and he just proved it.

Phil tells the guy, "I'll tell you what. Make a donation to charity and I'll give you the hat." The guy thinks for a second and then reluctantly agrees. Phil asks him, "how much are you going to donate?" Guy says, "$100". Phil says, make it "$200". The guy asks what charity?. Phil says Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the guy agrees. Phil gives him the hat and leaves with David Lee.

I thought it was a cool move. He posed for plenty of pictures and then left.