Phil Hellmuth

Phil Hellmuth, a successful professional poker player from America, is an explosive poker personality. Hellmuth’s poker life is packed with controversies, offensive statements, walk outs, altercations, arguments, and even physical fights. Popularly known as the “poker brat,” Hellmuth has collected a record of 11 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets.

Personal Life

Phil Hellmuth was born on July 16, 1964 at Madison in Wisconsin. He dropped out of the University of Wisconsin simply because he wanted to become a professional poker player.

Hellmuth is known for his temperamental attitude, owing to which he repeatedly has verbal battles with other professional poker players. For instance, at a Poker After Dark session, which was being aired on NBC, Hellmuth requested his opponents to stop talking when he was making a move. However, when Hellmuth began speaking, player Huck Seed made fun of him by requesting him to be quiet so that he could talk. The other players burst into laughter, and a miffed Hellmuth staged a walkout, threatening that he would never play in Poker After Dark again. The producers of Poker After Dark somehow pacified him and urged to go back to the set.

Hellmuth’s Poker Achievements

By 2011, Hellmuth has won over $13,000,000 in live tournaments alone, getting the fourth rank in the All Time Money List.

Hellmuth won WSOP 1989 Main Event, becoming the youngest player to achieve this impressive poker feat. In fact, Hellmuth has made around 85 WSOP cashes and has emerged as a WSOP finalist 45 times.

Hellmuth has won all his 11 WSOP bracelets playing Texas Hold’em events although he has enjoyed considerable success playing the non Texas Hold’em events. In WSOP 2011, he emerged as the finalist for a wide range of poker variants, including Omaha Hold’em, 2-7 Lowball, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, H.O.R.S.E, and others.

Hellmuth has not yet won any World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament, but has 13 WPT cashes to his credit and has reached the WPT final tables four times.

Hellmuth regularly appears on Poker After Dark as player as well as commentator. During the third season’s first episode, Hellmuth won a Poker After Dark tournament, collecting a cool prize of $100,000. After two weeks, he won another Poker After Dark tournament, grabbing another prize of $100,000.

Hellmuth and Ultimate Bet

Hellmuth played an important role in the creation of the Ultimate Bet online poker gaming software. He was also one of the members of Team UB.

As a member of Team UB, Hellmuth created a number of poker videos, some of which are Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Poker System and Ultimate White to Black Belt Course. His poker articles have been published in Cardplayer; besides, he has authored a number of poker books titled Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, Play Poker like the Pros, Poker Brat, The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played, and others.

Hellmuth has established an online store called pokerbrat.com, and poker players as well as fans of Hellmuth can visit the store for branded and non branded poker merchandize.