Daniel Negreanu Attacks Phil Hellmuth’s Greatest Claims, Twitter Trolls Pile On

3 min read

Daniel Negreanu indulged in some Conor McGregor-style trash talking ahead of his heads-up match with Phil Hellmuth.

Phil Hellmuth
Is Phil Hellmuth really poker’s greatest or has his time passed? A lot of pros no longer believe he’s the best. (Image: Larry Grossman/Photopokerarchive)

Hellmuth has long proclaimed that he’s the best poker player in the world. Few established pros pay much attention anymore, and most write off the comments as part of his shtick.

There are some, however, who aren’t willing to let Hellmuth’s claims slide any longer. As fans prepare for Hellmuth vs. Negreanu, the former has received a deluge of critical comments.

Negreanu talks trash

No one can say Hellmuth doesn’t invite negative attention. However, Negreanu sparked a heated Twitter debate when he called his opponent nothing more than a “decent” low to mid-stakes player.

That’s a bold categorization to make against someone that’s won more WSOP bracelets than anyone else (15) and $24 million in live tournaments. Indeed, that’s an impressive résumé by anyone’s standards.

But it’s not enough to make Hellmuth a threat in today’s poker world, according to Negreanu. In high roller events with buy-ins of $25,000 or more, the Poker Brat only has a handful of cashes.

For Negreanu, that simple isn’t good enough. In his opinion, Hellmuth may have been the “GOAT in his era” but “his era is long gone.”

Hellmuth a Willing Villain

Naturally, Hellmuth wasn’t going to take that lying down and quickly defended his record and his skills. 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold was also quick to defend Hellmuth.

There was, however, a lot of shade being thrown at the self-proclaimed greatest player in the world.

https://twitter.com/JasonKoon/status/1368312721981149184

All publicity is good publicity, and it can’t be forgotten that Hellmuth and Negreanu have a match to hype.

Indeed, it seems the latter has taken inspiration from famous trash talkers like Conor McGregor (see video below).

We also can’t ignore the fact that Hellmuth loves a confrontation. So, perhaps, he’s enjoying the negative attention in some sort of masochistic way.

The upcoming heads-up match against Negreanu will be a chance for Hellmuth to prove the haters wrong.

Whether or not a win would make him the greatest is another thing. What we do know, however, is that the contest just got a little bit more interesting.



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