Doug Polk poked around
If you followed the saga of Phil Hellmuth’s “will he or won’t he” when it comes to playing in the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event this week and thought something smelled fishy, it turns out your nose knew what was up.
After announcing in February that he was boycotting the Main Event, Hellmuth said early this week that he was now going to let the poker public vote on it and that the poll result would be binding. A few days later, Hellmuth announced on social media that the “Play World Series Main” voters won and that he would participate after all. But the poll was nowhere to be found. Odd, right?
Fortunately, poker player, vlogger, and casino owner Doug Polk did the extra legwork and confirmed suspicions that Hellmuth was full of it when he reversed his decision not to play in the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event. Polk had the receipts, posting a YouTube video on Friday showing a screenshot of the final poll, the results of which were 54% for Hellmuth to maintain his boycott.
Main Event is just too much
Phil Hellmuth has always been known as arguably the biggest self-promoter in poker, never missing an opportunity to make sure everyone is aware of him, his sponsors, his investment schemes, and the celebrities with whom he mingles. It feels like this “return” to the Main Event is yet another way to keep the spotlight on himself, whether it was planned since February or concocted over the weekend.
return next year if the WSOP gives players days off
When Hellmuth announced that he would not play in the 2025 WSOP Main Event, he said that it was just too grueling. In his opinion, the long hours and nearly two-week duration make it an endurance challenge more than a poker contest. For older players – Hellmuth is almost 61 – it’s too much. So, he decided to boycott it, only to return next year if the WSOP gives players days off during the course of the tournament.
It was hard to imagine the 17-time bracelet winner and 1989 WSOP Main Event champ, the man who always makes a ridiculous, showboat entrance, not playing in the most famous poker tournament in the world, but anything is possible. And his reasoning made sense.
Interesting poll you’ve got there
Fast forward to this week, when Hellmuth put out a video saying that he has decided to post a poll to X, letting poker fans vote on whether or not he should play. If the results are “pro WSOP,” then he will still boycott next year unless changes are made.
the poll was no longer posted to his X account
Hellmuth hinted that he would play over the next couple days, while the poll was still going, before finally announcing on Thursday that the “ayes” had it and that he would play. But, as mentioned earlier, the poll was no longer posted to his X account. The poll that this decision hinged upon and whose result he had been teasing for days.
He did post a screenshot of the poll when he announced that he would play, but that screenshot – showing 73% in favor of him playing – was from when there were over 22 hours remaining for people to vote. The real result, as Polk showed, was 54% for him to keep the boycott going after nearly 8,000 more people voted.
While we don’t know Hellmuth’s motivation behind this minor ruse, one might deduce that he had a change of heart for whatever reason and thought that an easier way out would be to post the poll. After all, the public would definitely want him to play in the Main Event, right? The poll would give him cover, but it backfired and he tried to fake it.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. Phil Hellmuth can do what he wants. The whole thing is dumb. But that’s just the point, it’s so dumb that it would have been better for him to just say: “You know what? I really do want to play in the Main Event and I’m going to keep talking to WSOP officials to see if some changes can be made in the future.”
Hellmuth would have taken flack for that, but it would have been simpler and less embarrassing than what he did.
