Phil Hellmuth

The poker brat, Phil Hellmuth. You either love him or hate him. He has plenty of enemies but he has an equal number of admirers as well. And for a good reason, he holds numerous records. Although he isn’t the leader in cash earnings he is the most consistent player with the record for the most cashes in the World Series of Poker, sixty-three. He is tied with TJ Cloutier at thirty-nine for the most World Series final table appearances.

Phil dropped out of college to pursue playing professionally. In 1989 he proved that he could do that by winning the main event of the World Series of Poker at the tender age of twenty-four, making him the youngest person to ever take home the bracelet. However he was no one-hit wonder. He continued to win and prove himself. With a record eleven WSP bracelets I think he has done that now. Although he has yet to win a World Poker Tour title he has made two final tables and finished in the money nine times. In April of 1993 he accomplished an unimaginable feat, he won three consecutive WSOP tournaments in three consecutive days.

Phil has made numerous appearances on High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, and Late Night Poker. He is also the commentator for Celebrity Poker Showdown. He has made a few instructional videos which are quite popular and has written several books including; Play Poker Like the Pros, Poker Brat, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, and The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played.

Besides being a great player Phil is known for his personality. While he seems to be rather nice and polite outside of the card room he is a caustic personality when at a poker table. He’s an odds man, if anyone does anything that violates the eternal law of odds and what you should do according to those odds, beware. He will let you have it. And if he gets a bad beat, dear Lord, protect yourself. He has a tongue of fire at times and only says there are only a handful of good players in existence. He’ll tell you exactly who he thinks they are too. But that’s just the icing on the cake. He’s so entirely full of himself. He oozes self-proclaimed superiority in every faucet of life it seems. He’s not only better at poker, he’s a better person, has a better life, and so on than everyone else. He’s got a bit of an ego problem it seems. But ego or not, he’s still an amazing player and he knows what he’s doing.