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Phillip J. Hellmuth, Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record eleven World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his "poker brat" personality. He is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
989, the 24-year-old Hellmuth became the youngest player to win the Main Event of the WSOP by defeating the two-time defending champion, Johnny Chan in heads up play.
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Quotations
Donkeys alwasy draw (sic).
During a 2-7 Triple Draw game on UltimateBet
I have ALL the glory, titles and ALL the mobney (sic).
During a No Limit game on UltimateBet
I played so perfect, I couldn't play more perfect.
During 2004 World Series of Poker
If there weren't luck involved, I guess I'd win every one.
During 2004 World Series of Poker, used frequently
That's why I am the greatest person in the world. Even the best players are willing to give me their chips... or at least they try
I bet this guy can't even spell Poker!
At the 2004 World Series of Poker main event, after an amateur bet all-in with K-J and outdrew Hellmuth's A-K.
Encyclopedia
Phillip J. Hellmuth, Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record eleven World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his "poker brat" personality. He is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
Poker accomplishments
World Series of Poker
In 1989, the 24-year-old Hellmuth became the youngest player to win the Main Event of the WSOP by defeating the two-time defending champion, Johnny Chan in heads up play. He held that distinction until 2008, when 22-year-old Peter Eastgate became the youngest Main Event champion.
At the 2006 World Series of Poker, he captured his record 10th World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with rebuys event. At the time, this tied him with fellow poker legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. However, unlike Brunson and Chan, all of his bracelets are in Texas hold'em.
At the 2007 World Series of Poker, Hellmuth won his record-breaking 11th bracelet in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event. Hellmuth also holds the records for most WSOP cashes (68) and most WSOP final tables (41), recently overtaking TJ Cloutier.
At the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Hellmuth made a deep run finishing in 45th place out of a field of 6,844. He was the last former champion standing at the event when he was knocked out. Hellmuth took home $154,400.
Hellmuth has won $5,859,080 at the WSOP and is ranked 8th on the WSOP All Time Money List.
World Series of Poker bracelets
| Year | Tournament | Prize (US$) |
|---|
| 1989 | $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship | $755,000 | | 1992 | $5,000 Limit Hold'em | $168,000 | | 1993 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em | $161,400 | | 1993 | $2,500 No Limit Hold'em | $173,000 | | 1993 | $5,000 Limit Hold'em | $138,000 | | 1997 | $3,000 Pot Limit Hold'em | $204,000 | | 2001 | $2,000 No Limit Hold'em | $316,550 | | 2003 | $2,500 Limit Hold'em | $171,400 | | 2003 | $3,000 No Limit Hold'em | $410,860 | | 2006 | $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with rebuys | $631,863 | | 2007 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em | $637,254 |
World Poker Tour
Hellmuth has not won a World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament. He has cashed 10 times and made 3 final tables. He finished 4th in the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em WPT Event at the 3rd Annual 49'er Gold Rush Bonanza in 2002 and 3rd in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em WPT Event at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods in 2003 and at the 2008 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Hellmuth finished in sixth place earning $229,480 in a final table that included both Phil Ivey and Nam Le. He also played in two WPT Invitational Events, the World Poker Tour by The Book in 2004 and the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II in 2006 and finished 3rd both times.
To date, Hellmuth has won $691,109 in WPT tournaments.
Other tournaments
Hellmuth is the season 3 champion of Late Night Poker.
In 2005, Hellmuth won the first National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He defeated Men Nguyen, Paul Phillips, Huck Seed, Lyle Berman and Antonio Esfandiari on the way to the final against Chris Ferguson whom he defeated in two out of three games. While trying to repeat in 2006, he lost in the first round to Chip Reese. In 2007, Hellmuth did not play due to the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker, a British tournament in which he took part. He won 4 out of his 6 group matches and eventually finished 3rd in the finals. Hellmuth took part in the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, losing in the first round to Tom Dwan.
He makes regular appearances on episodes of Poker After Dark, both as a player and as a drop in commentator. Hellmuth won his first Poker After Dark tournament in the first episode of the third season, winning a net $100,000. Hellmuth returned two weeks later and claimed his second Poker After Dark title, winning another net of $100,000. He also appeared in the first and fourth seasons of GSN's cash game show, High Stakes Poker.
As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $10,700,000. He is ranked 3rd on the All Time Money List, behind Jamie Gold, and Daniel Negreanu.
Poker-related activities
Hellmuth has made several instructional poker videos, including his Ultimate White To Black Belt Course and Phil Hellmuth's Million Dollar Poker Secrets. He has written many articles for Cardplayer magazine and several poker books including Play Poker like the Pros, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, The Greatest Poker Hands ever Played, and Poker Brat, which contains autobiographical material as well as poker advice. In May 2004 Phil Helmuth partnered with Oasys Mobile for the release of Texas Hold'em by Phil Hellmuth. At the time it was one of the ten most popular multi-player mobile phone games available. In spring 2006, Hellmuth replaced Phil Gordon as commentator on Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown.
Along with Annie Duke, Hellmuth is a poker coach on Fox Sports Network’s Best Damn Poker Show, which is sponsored by the poker site Ultimatebet.net.
Personality and controversy
Hellmuth is known for making disrespectful remarks about his opponents’ skills, especially after taking bad beats. During the Main Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker he stated "I can dodge bullets, baby!" after laying down Ace King to an opponent's pocket Aces on a board of A 4 4 Q rainbow. He later accused an opponent of not even being able to spell poker after the player put all of his money in the pot preflop with King Jack against Hellmuth's Ace King; Hellmuth's opponent hit a three-outer to win the pot. Other famous quotes include: "If luck weren't involved, I guess I'd win every [tournament]," and "I've revolutionized the way to play Texas hold 'em."
On one occasion, Hellmuth so infuriated veteran poker professional Sam Grizzle that they got into a fistfight. Hellmuth claims that the fight was a draw and that neither one of them was injured, but other accounts report that Grizzle easily won the fight with a single punch.
In the first week of the show Poker After Dark on NBC, after fellow pros Shawn Sheikhan, Steve Zolotow, Gus Hansen and Huck Seed refused to stop talking while it was his turn to act on his hand after Annie Duke raised him, Hellmuth threatened never to play in these tournaments again. Duke was the only player at the table who remained quiet while the drama played out. Producers of the show came up with a ruling regarding the situation, Hellmuth returned and was eliminated a few hands later by Sheikhan.
Hellmuth's sponsor, UltimateBet, arranged for him to arrive at the 2007 WSOP Main Event in an Ultimatebet race car, escorted by 11 Ultimatebet models (one for each of Hellmuth's 11 World Series of Poker bracelets). However, Hellmuth crashed the race car in the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino parking lot when he lost control of the vehicle and hit a concrete light fixture. After the accident, Hellmuth showed up in a limo, met his escorts, and made his grand entrance to the Main Event two hours late.The accident was briefly, by some sources, thought to be staged, but Hellmuth said it wasn't. He later made light of the accident in a television advertisement for Ultimatebet. In 2008, Hellmuth again made a grand entrance into the WSOP Main Event. As part of Ultimatebet's "UB Army" promotion, Hellmuth arrived in a convoy dressed in military garb, with eleven stars on his helmet (for the eleven WSOP bracelets he has won).
On day 5 of the 2008 WSOP, Hellmuth folded a hand to Cristian Dragomir. Asked by the table to show his hand, Dragomir revealed that he had called Hellmuth's pre-flop re-raise with T?4? (a weak hand). Hellmuth proceeded to call Dragomir an "idiot," among other terms. He was eventually issued a warning by the floorperson for continued berating of another player. In addition, he was advised by other players (including close friend Mike Matusow, who was seated at the same table) that he should stop. Nonetheless, he continued to berate Dragomir, until he was given a one-round penalty. The penalty was to be carried out at the beginning of play the next day. However, overnight, Hellmuth had a private meeting with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, after which Pollack overruled the floorperson's decision. (Hellmuth eventually finished this tournament in 54th place, while Dragomir finished in 29th.)
On December 20, 2008 Hellmuth was playing $200/$400 heads up limit hold em on UltimateBet, where he is a spokesman, when an apparent software glitch occurred and the $5599 pot was awarded to Hellmuth, even though he held the worst hand. (His opponent held King Queen for Three Kings and Hellmuth held Ten Two for two pair.) This hand became the subject of considerable controversy in the online forums due to Hellmuth's later comments about the hand. Immediately after the other player informed him of the error in awarding the pot, Hellmuth simply commented "U wanna play or what?" and "I play U limit, right now." In addition, when later questioned about the hand, Hellmuth commented that he had experienced such errors a hundred times in his online career, "maybe 50 the wrong way to them and 50 the wrong way to me." (This contradicted the official statement of Ultimatebet that no other cases of this error had been found.) Finally, the previous cheating scandal at Ultimatebet led to suspicions about the plausibility of the company's explanation for the computer bug that they claim caused the error.
Personal life
Hellmuth was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for three years before dropping out to play poker full-time. He currently resides in Palo Alto, California, with his wife Katherine Sanborn and two sons, Phillip and Nicholas.
Hellmuth's wife played in the Ladies' Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker, where she was eliminated by eventual champion Jennifer Tilly. Katherine holds a degree in child psychology.
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