You know what they say, give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but give him a fishing rod and he’ll eat until the global warming ultimately renders oceanic lifeforms extinct. Or something like that.

In poker terms, however, you only have to give Phil Hellmuth one chance at a bet – seemingly any bet – and he can’t resist jumping on the hook.

Today, Phil Hellmuth faced off against tennis pro Ellis Guernsey, and stared down the barrel of the young tennis ace’s fabled 127mph serve. If Hellmuth could win one point, then he would win $20,000. If not, he’d lose $4,000. Odds of 5/1? You were never going to keep Hellmuth out of that kind of action.

Hellmuth actually has form winning prop bets, unlike many poker players. To our minds, the winning ones we can recall stretch to Huck Seed perfecting a gymnastic backflip – his relative was a trained gymnast and brought him up to speed in 24 hours – and, well, Duke Madson’s suited walk to Vegas in his recent cinematic triumph.