Phil Hellmuth: Beating the Life Beat Blues

Whatever your feelings about Phil Hellmuth – and if you play poker the the odds are pretty good that you do have feelings, one way or another – it’s hard not to admire the sheer chutzpah of his extra-curricular activities. His portfolio isn’t just made up of tournament entry fees, he’s involved in hawking booze, online poker, and various lines of clothing. And then there are all the books…

With Play Poker Like the Pros he taught people how he approached the game, complete with the easily marketed wildlife metaphors (eagle, jackal, dormouse, sheep-tick, African swallow, etc…). In Poker Brat, he took a carpet beater to his brain and allowed us all to sneeze on the dust of his memories. Then there were the Phil Hellmuth presents books, like Joe Navarro’s Read ‘Em And Reap. And now he’s working hard on a self-help book that will teach you not about poker, but how to live.

What Has He Got To Say To Me?

What exactly the posterchild for unearned narcissistic privilege has to say on the subject of adversity might not appear obvious. Phil’s life doesn’t seem to have much to do with the average person's ups and downs. But he’s lived a life too, and puts his tracksuits bottoms on one leg at a time; and has grown into a more mature player even as we watched him lunge from strop to strop. His growth may well offer something we can learn from.

After all, narcissists tend to suffer wild oscillations in self-esteem thanks to realities constant challenges to their imagined excellence. Phil has talked very eloquently about learning to deal with those insecurities in the past; as well as learning to demonstrate a sense of humour about his public persona.

So before you leap to judge him – as I so clearly have – perhaps we should see how exactly he manages his role as life, as well as poker, guru.

Beating the Variance

In a recent interview with Jeff Haden on Inc.com, Phil was pressed on his strategies for keeping his head straight. He stuck with poker on that occasion but it seems fair to say that it’s not bad advice for everything from chainsaw juggling to managing your personal relationships:

“The key is to find a way that works for you that helps you refocus. [...] That's the thing about poker, and really about anything you pursue. If you aren't constantly improving, then you're going backwards. Commit to putting in the time to constantly improve and the downs are easier to deal with -- and you'll have a lot more ups.”

If that sounds like a rehash of ‘never stop moving forward’, ‘always aim to be better that you were the day before’, or Brittney’s ‘stronger than yesterday’ that’s because good advice – like Pope’s idea of wit – has almost always oft been thought before, but ne’er so well expressed.

Maybe there’s hope for the Guru Brat after all.