Phil Hellmuth

A General Information about Phil Hellmuth

Phil’s full name is Phillip Jerome Hellmuth, Jr. He was born on July 16, 1964 in Madison, Wisconsin. He currently lives in Palo Alto, California.

Hellmuth is a highly respected professional poker player who won a total of 15 World Series of Poker bracelets (all in Texas Hold’em). He is the record holder for prize money and final table appearances at the WSOP and of course in the Poker Hall of Fame. His WSOP winnings currently total $ 22,814,997. He is now in 5th place on the WSOP All Time Money List. At the age of 24, Hellmuth was the youngest winner of a WSOP Main Event in 1989 and held that record for 19 years. In 1993, he set another record by winning three bracelets in a single year. It’s yet to come home with a World Poker Tour title. After all, he has won 13 times and participated in 4 final tables, which earned him a total of $ 1,106,345 in the WPT tournaments.

Although, he is considered a leader in the modern poker scene, Hellmuth is not undisputed. He is known for making derogatory remarks to his challengers. He is known as “The Poker Brat”, and his tantrums can be violent, as revealed by his physical altercation with Sam Grizzle, but nobody was hurt. In 2007, he left the circle at Poker After Dark after Annie Duke made a derogatory remark.

He writes journal articles and books. Some of the best known are Bad Beats and Lucky Draws and The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played. His latest book is titled: “Deal Me In: 20 Of The World’s Top Poker Players Share The Heartbreaking And Inspiring Stories Of How They Turned Pro.” Pokerbrat.com opened in 2008 and offers poker under the Hellmuth brand and among other brands.

His style of play

He is referred to as a tight-aggressive player. He sets rather smaller amounts to keep his opponents in the game. He describes his playing style as “White Magic” and explains his success by simply making much better decisions in the course of the game than his opponent and his reading skills of the opposite are much better. No one obeys the poker rules as Phil, if you ask him for his opinion.

His playing style is not easy to describe. He waits for better starting hands, which he then plays very aggressively. He adapts very well to the table and his opponents. If the table is too tight, he raises very often. If the players fold often, he bets a lot. From every small weakness of the opponent, he tries to take advantage. He himself says that the most important thing is always reading the opponent.

Hellmuth takes a critical view of today’s stars of the online poker scene, who are also gaining momentum in the big live events, because they neglect things like reading the opponent in favor of pure mathematics. Conversely, he is repeatedly accused of ignoring mathematical insights in poker, which occasionally causes his style of play to be considered outdated.

Another poker legend, Daniel Negreanu, said very deliberately in an interview: “The big difference between Phil and me is that I can see that the game has changed and I have to adjust my game. Phil thinks it’s enough to brush teeth, do some yoga and eat healthy food to be a winner. ”

Even if it is never boring with Phil at the table and you always get some action, his complaining at the poker table is often perceived as annoying. Especially if he loses with the better hand or if his opponent wins by a stupid playing with luck, he likes to freak out.