Phil Gordon

[Jason Strasser (strassa2)]

This guy is a total mess. You'd have no idea based on his TV persona, but my god this guy is full of rage. I've played with him in the 1k rebuy last year, and the 5k mixed event. Here is a list of things I've seen

1) Someone will reraise him and he will fold but shake his head violently while throwing cards into the muck. Then he will stare at his chips and grind them into the felt while he makes an anguished look on his face.

2) Hellmuth loses a big pot and starts doing his standard F All you Crazy Internet Kids speech that is pretty playful in nature. Phil H is generally playful even though he is technically berating other players. Phil Gordon speaks up and says to him that he needs to stop or he will make sure he gets a 30 minute penalty and that because he is on the rules committee for the WSOP he is allowed to say this. Hellmuth handled it great, basically looking at him and saying "who the [censored] are you phil gordon?"

3) He berates other players constantly. He is like that little idiot who will see someone open Q9o and then he will make some comment like "nice open queen nine OFFSUIT for a RAISE in EARLY POSITION".

4) He whines like a little baby. Juanda and I were with him last year at the 1k event and he kept going busto (sometimes with best, sometimes with worse) and even though he said he had won 10k the night before playing pool, he was so pissed at having to rebuy.

5) I know this is NVG, but he is also pretty terrible at poker. Here was his bustout hand:

Jimmy Tran (maybe?? loose azn dude) opens in early position to 1800 with 300 600 blinds. One caller, then Gordon calls in the BB. Flop comes A55 two spades. Gordon leads for 2k, azn dude makes it 4k. Azn dude barely covers him, they are around 25k deep. Numbers might be slightly off but the hand flow is correct. Gordon makes it 4k more, so 8k total to azn guy. He shrugs and calls after a little thought. Turn is some high spade. Gordon bets 7k and then calls off around 10k more when the azn guy pushes (calls instantly, bets 7k instantly, as if he really didnt even see flush or care). Gordon has 56, asian guy has 89s for a flush.

Phil immediately pounds the table in disgust, then basically runs off. 20 feet away he makes a U Turn and dashes back to the table. "Did he have me covered??" Keep in mind, after the hand in his anger, he basically pushed all his chips in a huge messy pile towards the AZN guy.

The asian guy tells him that he counted his chips and for sure had him covered by 5k or so. Phil asks for the dealer to count the chips, but they are all in a total mess because he sloppyily shoved them into the middle where some were in main pot, etc. A few people at the table are like "yeah Phil, he def had you covered". After sitting there for about 10 secs not saying anything, he says "Nice hand" and walks off.

So not only is he terrible as a TV guy, but he is a total tiltbox nutcase with zero mental control, a terrible temper, and a real lack of understanding for poker! It helps to be really tall, good looking, and to have run well at the right times.

Edit:

Forgot to mention that Phil Gordon threatened to give Humberto Brenes a 30 minute penalty for taunting players with his electronic shark.