Celebrity Death Match: Hellmuth vs. Grizzle II

I've been reading with incredible interest Felicia Lee's postings on her poker journal (now appropriately linked to the right). I am very impressed with her writing and especially her ability to recall details about tournaments and other juicy details. Hopefully all of us poker bloggers can sit and have a game together.. It would be interesting, and the conversation would well outweigh the game at hand.

Everyone seems to be talking about Phil Hellmuth and comparing him to John McEnroe as the "bad boys" of the sport. I tend to lean toward Decker's assessment that the two really have no comparison, apart from being volatile on their respective playing fields. The difference I see is, John never verbally attacked another fellow competitor. It was always aimed at the officials... Or himself. Phil never attacks anyone but the other players.

But that's already been talked about, and isn't the angle of my post. Here's my take. Phil is an intimidator, much as Dale Earnhardt was "The Intimidator" on the race track. On the track, you were in Dale's world. You got nothing for free out of Dale. If you wanted to pass Dale, you had to work for it. You got nothing for free. Phil is sort of the same way. His whole deal is, you're in his world. He tries to get into your head with his grating personality. He wants you to think he's a dick. He wants you to try to make him shut up. Because once you tilt, you're his, and he knows it.

Just ask Sam Grizzle.