Trust Your Instincts

Date: 2008.04.21 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

I have received a number of complaints recently through newspapers and Card Player magazine along the lines of “Phil, please don’t tell us the results of a ‘Poker After Dark’ episode before it airs.” Furthermore, it is now in my contract with NBC and “Poker After Dark” that I cannot reveal the results. OK, I can still talk about the lineup and a hand that I played during an episode. As many of you know, “PAD” appears on NBC six nights a week, 52 weeks per year at 2 a.m. A hit show, it gets better ratings than most other late-night programs.

“PAD” reminds me of the old days when I competed with mostly great players, many of whom have something interesting to say because they are clever, witty and sharp as a tack. And some are just plain characters! I love the fact that “PAD” shows every hand — or the vast majority of them — instead of “highlight-hand poker” that appears everywhere else. The hand that I’m going to talk about in this column occurred during a show with Clonie Gowen, Phil Laak, Gavin Smith, Mike Matusow, David Williams and me.