Although Phil Hellmuth may be in his element when at the poker table, it turns out that he is also a man of artistic talent that was unveiled to us this weekend. The popular poker pro made a cameo in the latest episode of SHOWTIME drama series Billions.
In a nutshell, Billions’ plot revolves around New York hedge-fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damien Lewis), who is just brilliantly good at making billions, and US Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), who has made it his life’s mission to expose people like Axelrod for wrongdoing. Two powerful men are on a constant collision course that explodes into a clever and witty series about the high finance world of New York.
Season 2 of the show premièred in mid-February and Hellmuth appeared on Sunday’s Episode 3: ‘Optimal Play’. Although the player did not demonstrate his tremendous poker skills in Billions, his appearance had much to do with poker. Hellmuth was the host of a charity poker tournament that saw Axelrod and other members of the New York hedge-fund elite trying to outmaneuver each other at the poker table. It should be noted that there was great symbolism in the choice of game to represent financial kings’ real-life rivalries and use of different maneuvers to outplay each other.
Hellmuth’s Billions cameo did not come as his television debut. Over the years, the player has appeared in a number of different poker-related series, playing opposite some of poker’s biggest. Die-hard poker fans have probably seen him in GSN’s High Stakes Poker show and Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, where he had appeared as a participant in the games, a commentator, and a coach.
And here it is important to note that being the holder of record 14 WSOP gold bracelets, Hellmuth himself can certainly be referred to as one of poker’s biggest. The player’s live tournament earnings currently exceed $21 million. He is a one-time WSOP Main Event champion. He won the title back in 1989. Playing heads-up against two-time Main Event winner Johnny Chan and defeating him, Hellmuth, aged 24, became the youngest player to have ever won the tournament at the time.
