Phil Hellmuth

Any talk about the most colorful characters in poker will certainly include Phil Hellmuth, winner of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event.

This former world champion is called the Poker Brat because of his brash attitude and ego. His attitude may sometimes be appalling, but his talent cannot be denied. At age 42, he is already a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. Hellmuth currently holds the record for most championship bracelets won in the WSOP. He is arguably the most successful tournament poker player in the history of the game.

As of 2007, Hellmuth’s career live tournament winnings had already surpassed the $9.58 million mark.

For nearly two decades, Hellmuth has been an absolute force on the professional poker circuit. He won the biggest tournament in poker in 1989, at age 24, with his triumph at the WSOP main event. At that time, he was merely a skinny college kid when he faced and defeated the two-time poker world champion, Johnny “Oriental Express” Chan.

In 2005, Hellmuth became the first winner of the inaugural National Heads-Up Poker Championship, besting a powerhouse field that included former world champions Chris Ferguson and Huck Seed and top-flight players such as Lyle Berman, Men Nguyen, Paul Phillips and Antonio Esfandiar.

As of this writing, Hellmuth has 11 WSOP championship bracelets to his name. He has finished in the WSOP money list an amazing 64 times. He is ranked seventh in the WSOP all-time money list with over $5.6 million live tournament winnings in the WSOP alone.

In addition, Hellmuth has also had nine money finishes in the World Poker Tour (WPT). He has made it to the WPT final table four times but has yet to capture his first championship. Nonetheless, he has won nearly $600,000 in WPT tournaments.

Hellmuth is presently in fourth place on poker’s All Time Money List. He trails Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem and Daniel Negreanu.

Hellmuth displayed his typical behavior in the inaugural National Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2005. He won that tournament by edging out another former world champion, Chris Ferguson, in a best-of-three face-off. When Ferguson won game two, Hellmuth suddenly stood up, sarcastically shook Ferguson’s hand, stormed out the room and complained to the cameras, "He had threes, how lucky can you get?" He then returned to the table and won the deciding game three.

Hellmuth was also the champion of Late Night Poker, Season Three. He started doing TV work in 2006, replacing Phil Gordon on the Bravo Network’s Celebrity Poker Showdown. Hellmuth has penned two books, “Play Poker Like the Pros” and the semi-autobiographical “Poker Brat.”

According to Hellmuth, one of the things that keeps him on his toes is that he remembers the hard times. “The level of frustration involved with going broke is incredible,” he revealed. “Not being able to pay the bills or even ante up in a poker game is tragic for a great poker player. Being a champion is all about how you deal with the bad times”.

Hellmuth lives with his wife, Stanford University psychiatrist Katherine Sanborn, in Palo Alto, California. They have two sons, Phillip III and Nicholas.