Hellmuths dirty little secret

AKQ

AKQ

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Ever hear about the poker saying "Dont tap the glass"
its a term for making the fish at the table aware and less loose

in cash games this is the opposite of what you want
and you will piss players off that were eating that extra value on that table prior
So we all overall as a community tend to agree with this


But there is one guy that understands player types, Survival MTT, and the polarization effects of tapping the glass.
Phill learned the importance of "opening up a game" from a limit holdem Pro that was coaching him at the time.

The ol Pro would would sit down at the high stiff games and proceed to dump 80-120BBs raise everything raise every flop and reraise
and since its limit this would last awhile for his 120 BBs
The table became so loose and active
that winning his initial "opening up the game investment" on top of his prior expected EV for the game ,was a complete blowout of 400BBs




Polarity is a beautifully powerful word that sums up so much,
lets examine 2 columns below
polarity aware frightened fish on left happy fish on right column,

POLARITY
tight/ looose
passive /aggressive
weak / strong
sad/ happy
fold / raise
check / bluff

when you tap on the glass with amatuers
it affects their polarity
Polarity can be manipulated through various means as we talked about in opening up the game


Cash Game
The right side of this polarity is much better for getting value out of and letting them rebuy and make mistakes
and its okay if the fish bust you once in awhile you can just rebuy yourself in and win it back.

In a MTT(specifically wsop MAIN EVENT)
You have 1 life
for a weeks worth of poker against all types of different players and donky styles
The polarization of the left side is what we are aiming for in MTTS
it can almost eliminate alot of our RNG factor and provide us enough cushioning on our stack to flip and lose and still be healthy enough for 2 more bad flips in a row

Phill Hellmuth changes the polarity of his opponents not by dumping free money for everybody to get loose
but insults and demeaning comments and he just won't stop
So when he finishes "polarizing" the table

his table is walking on eggshells and honestly begin to fold to death.

When someone gets a good hand you will know it for certain and he can say "I can dodge bullets baby!
because his opponents new found polarity made it obvious
plus They Just don't want to get in a pot with him,
when they do they're oop and can only think about the left column unless they have the goods!
making it an easy fold for Phill
if they try to defend they tend to get outplayed on further streets
adding more to the preflop fold spree
they think theyr'e gonna wait for a premium hand against Phill(like... he is demanding it lol) and get it all in against him
but its too late by then stackwise and to easily avoided by him






(lets cut left for a second)
Dan Bilzerian
yeaah that guy!
He said the smartest thing about making money in poker that I have ever heard while making the sweetest dis ever to Doug Polk in the same breath.
Thats fine you chose to grind against the best in the world for years for ****ing pennies
I chose/had/created the opportunity to play nobodys for millions of dollars and won
Am I good at Poker? no I'm not!
but I was better than the people I was playing,plus I had a loose image that got action and invites- dan bilzerian just went up in my books after this interview


i don't know If I should reveal all the secrets in the universe
so willy nilly.
but eh just put 999$ into your own wallet and go buy yourself somethin shiny


lets go over it again

He doesn't tap the glass
He is two hands in the air and circling the table beating the glass.
Cursing your inteligence your looks your everything
and uses their new found polarization and his hand reading skills to outplay his opponents and keep them folding for AA
of course he can dodge bullets
he has the fish folding 95%+of their range
the guy hasnt made a raise in 2 hours
and we get alot more of the blinds and antes from a tight wad table
that doesn't want their tank shaken anymore and get called stupid and dumbest player alive etc(but doesn't realize they are over folding to a ridiculous range and are giving him Credit for a hand)
he steals and outplays in various and believable ways
that you never really catch on to whats happening
consistently preflop stealing wasn't not his key MO
but rather a combination of preflop flop turn river thefts due to his ability to know where his opponents are in the hand





I teach the importance of picking a Polarity image
In Phills case he gets safer easier to win pots due to the tables polarity
due to scared fishs that only raise with the goods
allowing fast good folds from him all the while saying he was dealt AK and KK every hand
he does not show bluffs are condone them.
and keeps a very solid image even if his# of hands played doesn't match his tight range % image, the amatuers arent on this level to catch him and the pros werent good enough to play back at him at the time with air and were polarized just the same as the amatuers on his table.
 
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AKQ

AKQ

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Once it became fun to donk Phill
He couldn't win for some years because the RNG factor was too great
And it was almost a sport to watch him become the brat and blowup

I know what he is doing because I played the same strategy back in 06
and I crushed the deepest qualifying field for an event Ever
learning from him and applying it to too tight overly aggressive fields

Jamie GOLD in his last interview with cardschat.com said that he watched Hellmuth and just tried to mimick what he was doing
with alotta run good and allota heart
he took the hellmuth strat and added a bit more GTO factor
When people took stands against him they werent scared and Jamie wasn't as touch and go as Phill
The Pots that Jamie got into and bluffed were massive compared to PH avg pot size contention.

Jamie got lucky a few times, you have to its poker!coupled with skillfull bluffs with the PH strategy made him a Legend
bbut what NOBODY is grasping is say it with me Polarization
Jamie didn't yell at people or make em go left,
he was a known bluffer
that made them loooser widwer bluffier lots of errors
he had hands and they got paid off
he had the biggest stack in history in the biggest wsop ever 8800 players

Phillls strategy has changed over the years due to the fields overall change
originally a groundwork for my unique style of play and has influenced me heavily over the years
into constructing my own Game Theory Optimal
That is unique and is optimal in every way
Getting value, getting the bluff pots won and losing minimum;
whilst Polarizing the table right and capitalizing on every POSSIBLE EDGE against ANY player

GTO ALL THE TIME.
not some of the time!
eat your heart out Doug Polk!!!
 
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