|
Written by Marcus | Monday, September 28th, 2009
This week we got the WSOP related announcement that the president of Card Player Media Jeff Shulman has chosen Phil Hellmuth for his WSOP training sessions.
Hellmuth is the 11-time bracelet-winner and 1989 World Champion and will act as his poker coach for the main-event final table to be held next November. Finalist Jeff commented; “The simplest reason why I’m doing this — I want to win, and I think it will help. I turned on the TV and I was watching Tiger Woods or something, and I realized — every single player has a coach. No matter how good or bad my game is, it can always get better. I’m not playing my A-game right now. I’m probably like at a solid B. I made a couple calls in the tournament that I wasn’t pleased with, and I just know that I’m not the best poker player out there.”
Choosing Phil Hellmuth when looking for a coach for the final table was the obvious choice for Shulman as him and Phil are not just business partners but have a friendship that goes way back in time. Poker star Phil Hellmuth also commented; “Jeff Shulman is a first-rate businessman who runs the poker industry’s leading publication. Jeff also loves the game of poker, and he comes out only for the biggest and most prestigious poker tournaments in the world, where he has a terrific track record. I have always liked and respected Jeff, and that’s why I am coaching him for the November Nine, where he is the favourite to become the 2009 World Champion of poker.”
The plan is to have the coaching and mentoring online per Skype conversations with Hellmuth perfecting his skills. Finally, Hellmuth will join Jeff in Las Vegas a couple of days before the final for some real one to one lessons.
Until now, Jeff is the only one of the 9 finalists who has publicly said he has a coach, with non e of the others mentioning this. Maybe he took inspiration from last years’ finalist Dennis Phillips who achieved a third place finish with the help of poker pro Roy Winston. Jeff is currently standing as fourth in chip position and a vaster experience than the most other finalists. In fact, he had finished in seventh place in the 2000 WSOP main event, and holds experience at big buy-in events where he cashed four times in the prestigious $25,000 Five-Star World Poker Classic (WPT Championship) in ’03, ’04, ’05, and ’08.
Shulman, a humble player, knew he had to improve his game for the final and feels confident with Hellmuth coaching him into the final. He sees this as the perfect opportunity and chance to finish in a better spot in November.
Jeff feels their friendship and similarities in playing styles will be beneficial to him; “Phil just has such a way of thinking about winning that I knew he would be a great resource we’re going to talk about final-table strategy, analyze the tapes, and work on my own play.”
 More Related Articles
Written by Marcus · Filed Under news · |
