Whenever Phil Hellmuth graces the High Stakes Poker set in his now-signature black and gold tracksuit, you just know there's going to be fireworks. The last time he made an appearance on a PokerGO-branded show, audiences were treated to a vintage Hellmuthian blowup – complete with a microphone pack slam inspired, perhaps, by Daniel Negreanu's selfie stick smash a few years ago.
As such, many viewers expected to see Hellmuth battle it out – both verbally and with the cards – against his tablemates Scott Seiver, Kento Mori, Markus Gonsalves, Justin Gavri, Jared Bleznick, and Seth Gottlieb on Monday night's episode.
Instead, after playing for roughly 40 minutes and losing $100,000 in the process, Hellmuth decided to call it quits.
'I thought maybe I'd win $300K today'
In the opening frames of the show, Hellmuth seemed in good spirits. With $100,000 in front of him to start the session, he was quick to remind the table of his prowess in the televised cash game streets.
"Everyone noticed when I won 23 out of 24 televised cash games," Hellmuth asserted.
"You said it out loud every time," countered Seiver.
"Yeah, it's true. I did say it out loud," Hellmuth admitted as the table burst into laughter.
While the atmosphere around the table remained light and friendly, the action on the felt was anything but, and it only took two hands for Hellmuth to come completely undone.
In the first, Gottlieb started the action with a raise to $2,000 with 
before Hellmuth three-bet to $6,000 with 
to clear out the rest of the field behind him. When the action folded back around to him, Gottlieb matched Hellmuth's raise and the two players went to the 
flop. While Hellmuth connected with top pair, top kicker, Gottlieb had him in a seriously bad way with bottom set. Somehow, Hellmuth sniffed out the danger and checked back on the flop to bring in the 
turn.
Gottlieb couldn't let another street check through and bet $4,200 into the $13,800 pot. While he may have avoided disaster on the flop, Hellmuth stepped right back into the firing line with a raise to $11,000 on the turn. With plenty of worse hands to derive value from, Gottlieb opted to three-bet to $26,000, sending Hellmuth into monologue mode.
"Oh, man. What the f**k?" Hellmuth lamented. "Oh, man. You got a set, really?"
"I'll show you, Phil," came the reply from Gottlieb.
Hellmuth continued, saying, "Yeah, I slow-played this hand because the last hand – remember? Normally, I check back a king there, do you know what I mean? And I decided not to check back a king. I mean, I didn't have it that time so now, of course, you know I have at least an overpair here, right?"
Eventually, Hellmuth matched the $26,000 to bring in the 
on the river. After a moment or two of consideration, Gottlieb sought further value from Hellmuth, betting $28,000 into the $65,800 pot.
"So I thought maybe I'd win $300K today; I had a really good feeling. This is what happens," said Hellmuth.
After a few more moments of thought, Hellmuth moved a brick of cash across the betting line for a call – only to see the bad news as Gottlieb turned over his set.
'That was fun'
After a cutaway interview with Hellmuth wherein he recounts his blowup on the set of No Gamble, No Future, the knockout blow arrived – delivered, once again, by Gottlieb. This time, it was Gavri who kicked off the action with a raise to $1,000 with 
. Gottlieb, on the button, peeled 
and three-bet to $3,500. When the action folded around to him, Hellmuth looked down at 
and bumped it up to $12,000 – a committing raise as he had only $31,300 remaining to start the hand.
Gottlieb proceeded to plop down two bricks of cash – one of which belonged to Hellmuth to start the episode – to put his opponent all-in. Hellmuth wasted no time in making the call and Gottlieb immediately let him know he was in trouble.
"I got aces," he said.
"Nice hand," Hellmuth replied as he turned over his queens.
With $64,200 in the middle, the two players settled on running it one time. As one of the two remaining queens in the deck was folded pre-flop, Hellmuth had only one immediate out, and while the 
flop failed to provide the miracle one-outer, the 
turn brought in a few additional outs. On the 
river, both players improved, but Gottlieb held the winner with his ace-high flush.
"I quit," Hellmuth declared as he took to his feet. "That was fun."
In a departure from his last PokerGO-produced early exit, Hellmuth calmly and quietly removed his microphone pack. Interestingly, Hellmuth offered his goodbyes only to Bleznick.
"See you next season, Jared," Hellmuth muttered before walking off the set and into the Las Vegas night.
Images Courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO
High Stakes Poker airs Monday evenings at 8:00pm ET, exclusively on PokerGO.
