What would whining, excuse-making poker pros do without their blogs?

Just days after legendary poker pro Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson wrote on his blog that he blames his poor showing at the recent World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on “fatigue” suffered from signing too many autographs, equally legendary (and whiney) poker pro Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr. has weighed in on his blog with his excuses for his poor play (for him) at the Main Event.

Writing on his blog at www.philhellmuth.com, poker’s bad boy declares: “I feel like I deserve better than a 45th-place finish at the 2008 WSOP Main Event. In six days I never faltered. I played one coin flip for over 50% of my chips and I didn’t have any double up hands for the last three days.=A0I cannot say this about any other tournament that I have played in my life.=A0The amateurs killed me when they called big pre-flop raises…

“I recognize that I’m blessed from head-to-toe in life. So I’m just saying that I deserved better based on the way I was playing, not based on anything else…now I have a long time to wait until I can do something great in poker.”

What was said to Brunson can be said to Hellmuth–do you want some cheese with that whine?

This isn’t the first time Hellmuth has berated less-experienced players who have beaten him out in tournaments.

No, saying things such as “the amateurs killed me when they called big pre-flop raises” has become de rigeur for poker’s whining Man in Black.

On a recent heads-up tourney televised on NBC where Phil faltered, the “Poker Brat” yelled at a much less-experienced player who had just beaten him, saying, “If you had played that (last) hand according to the book, I would’ve won!”

Which is just the point, a point Phil fails to understand.

Hellmuth is so much better than almost anyone else he plays against that if his opponents play hands they way they’re supposed to–the way Phil expects them to, by the book–they have virtually no chance of winning.

Their only real chance most people have of beating Hellmuth at poker is to play in a way he doesn’t expect–unconventionally, not by the so-called book, in a way he doesn’t anticipate–and that’s why they do it.

Ironic, isn’t it?

For a man who’s image now appears on cans of beer, Hellmuth still has a fondness for whine.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)