Begrudgery
Begrudgery is a toxic combination of jealousy, spite, and festering resentment. It raised its ugly head today when Phil Hellmuth lambasted the World Series Of Poker’s 2025 Player Of The Year (POY) contest. In a tirade filled with misinformation and bad takes, the self-styled Poker Brat criticised the mechanism by which points are earned and in doing so, took more than a swipe at the accomplishment of this year’s very deserving winner Shaun Deeb.
Hellmuth opened by saying that “the rules are messed up”
Calling it his ‘bone to pick,’ Hellmuth opened by saying that “the rules are messed up” and “I don’t think any professional poker player believes the right person won Player of the Year.” In his next breath, he referred to a conversation that he had with Daniel Negreanu who he must not regard as a professional poker player because Negreanu’s take was that Deeb was deserving.
Deeb won a bracelet in the $100,000 PLO Highroller, came runner-up three times, and had a third-place finish at this years WSOP or as Hellmuth called it “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, bullsh*t.” If five top 3 results in a Summer is bullsh*t, I wonder how he would review his own campaign consisting of one final table and one third place finish.
Hellmuth’s argument
On July 17th, Hellmuth posted a congratulatory tweet to Deeb:
However, it now appears that there may have been sarcasm in that message as subsequent replies and now this video make his true feelings pretty clear.
The crux of Hellmuth’s argument, which is a generous definition of what it was, is that Benny Glaser, who won three bracelets, and Michael Mizrachi, who won the two most prestigious tournaments at the Series, are both more deserving. Those are both extraordinary feats and worthy of all the plaudits that they receive. However, neither man accumulated as many points across a best-10 sample. This is what the POY is judged on.
the video containing the lie is still going viral
Hellmuth then made the bogus claim that Deeb is involved in how the POY is conceived, that he is “writing the rules.” He has since apologised for that false statement but has not removed the video which makes it. That’s not good enough as the video containing the lie is still going viral and his frankly lack-lustre retraction video is likely to be seen by a fraction of the numbers.
Hellmuth’s pursuit of notoriety
There is another way to look at this outburst from Hellmuth. It could just be the next in an ever-growing line of ‘attention-seeking, look at me being controversial” videos. From Ike Haxton’s medical mask to insincere threats to boycott the Main Event to whatever the f*ck this year’s entrance to the Main Event was, Hellmuth is certainly starting to wreak of desperation in the pursuit of notoriety.
Don’t get me wrong, he has always been a bit of a cringey caricature and pantomime villain but, in recent years, it’s started to hit different. There was a nastiness to his targeting of Haxton, a Janus-faced quality to his Main Event embargo, and now a caustic and rancorous aspect to this attack on Deeb.
the players going for POY should optimise for structure
Whether the POY formula is right or wrong, whether it rewards one thing more or less than it should, it doesn’t actually matter. The fact that it’s locked in means that the players going for POY should optimise for structure and that is what Deeb undoubtedly did, just as he did when it placed a larger emphasis on volume.
Deeb calls out Hellmuth for spreading lies
Deeb responded with a superb post four hours after Hellmuth’s original video, which begins with him addressing the “misinformation floating around” with regard to his involvement in the POY formula, a formula which has arguably been changed to specifically limit his chances of winning. Deeb elaborated:
“I play more events at the WSOP than almost anyone, year after year. The old system favored players like me who put in massive volume. The new cap flattened the field — and I still came out on top.”
Deeb also dismissed Hellmuth’s claim that no professional players believe that the right person won. “That’s just false,” he said, “I’ve had overwhelming support from players who understand the structure and saw the grind firsthand.” He is correct about that. The vast majority of players respect how WSOP POY and any other poker leaderboard reward volume, consistency, and a body of results.
Deeb earned it
If the formula needs tweaking, then change it for next year, but don’t undermine the accomplishment of the person who won it fair and square, the person who showed up every day to grind with its particularities in mind. That’s the definition of bad sportsmanship. That’s the definition of begrudgery. Deeb even acknowledged that the formula could be adjusted:
“Is the system perfect? No. It still needs work. I’d gladly help improve it — even if it means lowering my future chances.“
Deeb is genuine here and on this, and his entire statement, he received the endorsement of last year’s POY champion Scott Seiver:
There is nobody in poker quite like Shaun Deeb. He is a singular entity in our game, who will go down as one of the greats. His accomplishments are many and this particular achievement is up there with the best of them. It should be in no way overshadowed by two other phenomenal performances by two other greats of the game. It should be celebrated without caveat and his own words should be allowed to resonate loudly:
“I’ve been chasing this for years. Every summer, same mindset: show up, play everything, let the score take care of itself… [The POY] rewards steady results across the entire series — not popularity, not narrative… I didn’t win it in a vacuum. I earned it — one table, one day, one hand at a time.”
He certainly did.
