Phil Hellmuth - Play Poker Like The Pros Love him or hate him, Phil Hellmuth makes for good television. When not on one of his toddler-liked tirades a Phil Hellmuth plays a great game of poker. Even people who dislike Hellmuth admit that he's a great poker player.

Phillip J. Hellmuth Jr. was born in July, 1964 in Madison, Wisconsin. He is the first of five children and was raised in a middle-class neighborhood. His father was an assistant dean and professor at the University of Wisconsin.

When he was a kid, Phil Hellmuth’s mother put a sign in the family’s only bathroom that read “You are what you think you are. You become what you think you are. What you think becomes reality.”

Hellmuth's mother wanted her children to see that sign everyday and have it inspire them to do greater things.

Phil Hellmuth and his siblings grew up playing games. Because he was the oldest, Hellmuth felt like he always had to win. His life growing up was full of books and studies and after high school, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin.

Phil Hellmuth Learns To Play Poker

He was first introduced to poker in college where he started in low limit cash games and worked his way up. He even played professors for higher stakes.

Soon he was entering poker tournaments and traveling. Phil Hellmuth soon realized that he could make more money at poker than he could with a steady job. To the dissatisfaction of his academic father, Hellmuth quit school and became a professional poker player.

Soon he had a $20,000 bankroll and had paid off all of his school loans.

Phil Hellmuth took his bankroll to Las Vegas where he played a variety of games, including backgammon and craps. His luck did not hold, however, and he lost all of his money. Returning to Wisconsin, Hellmuth played his former professors and classmates. In no time at all, he had another bankroll built up.

Phil Hellmuth and the World Series of Poker

In 1988, Phil Hellmuth entered his first World Series of Poker. He placed fifth in the Pot Limit Omaha event and 33^rd in No Limit Hold’Em.

But in 1989 he made poker history. He took fifth place in Pot Limit Omaha and fourteenth in Limit Ace to Five Draw. He made it to the final table of the No Limit Hold’Em main event. There he outlasted the other contenders and finally defeated defending champion Johnny Chan in heads-up play to win first place. The win earned him $755,000 and the first of his record-holding eleven WSOP bracelets. He was also the youngest player to win a WSOP title.

The 1989 win improved his family’s view of poker as a career. Hellmuth had promised to buy his father a new Mercedes if he won the tournament and delivered good on that promise. Hellmuth has claimed that things got even better between them when Hellmuth married a girl from his father’s college alma mater.

Phil Hellmuth's Other Poker Tournament Success

Besides his WSOP titles, Hellmuth has had other successes at the felt. In 1989 at the 5^th Annual Diamond Jim Brady Tournament, Hellmuth took third in the No Limit Hold’Em main event. At the 1992 WSOP, he took second place in Limit Hold’Em. Also at the 1992 WSOP he won second in No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball. At the 1998 L.A. Poker Classic, he won first place in No Limit Hold’Em. In 2000, he won third in No Limit Hold’Em at the Carnival of Poker. At the Poker EM 2000, he took first place in Limit Seven Card Stud. In 2001 at the Shooting Star Tournament, he won first in Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. AT the 2003 L.A. Poker Classic, he won first place in Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. And there are many, many more.

One of his larger wins was in 2005 at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He defeated notable professionals Men Nguyen, Huck Seed, Lyle Bermna, Paul Phillips, and Antonio Esfandiari to make it to the finals. There he beat out Chris Ferguson in two out of three games and won $500,000.

Phil Hellmuth on Poker After Dark

Phil Hellmuth has appeared on the series Poker After Dark. In 2008, during the third season of PAD, he won first and earned $120,000. A few weeks later, he won his second Poker After Dark tournament, earning another $120,000. He has also appeared on the game show High Stakes Poker.

Phil Hellmuth - Poker Brat

Other than his skill at the cards, Phil Hellmuth is known for his inflated ego and his poor attitude when he loses. His tantrums at the table have earned him the nickname ‘The Poker Brat’. He often berates his opponents after a bad beat, and the cameras are always there to catch it. He has claimed that he can’t control himself during those moments and that the tirades never last but a few minutes.

He once accused Jim Pitman of not being able to spell poker after Pitman delivered him a bad beat.

In another incident during the first week of the show Poker After Dark, the drama unfolded right before the cameras when the other players at the table refused to stop talking while Phil Hellmuth contemplated his next move against Annie Duke. At one point he declared that he would never play in these tournaments again.

Phil Hellmuth - Play Poker Like The Pros and Bad Beats and Lucky Draws

Despite the controversy, his success at the table has gained him much respect. In 2007, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. He has authored two best-selling books, Play Poker Like the Pros and Bad Beats and Lucky Draws.

Phil Hellmuth is sponsored by UltimateBet.com. He currently lives in Palo Alto, California with his wife and family. (His wife, a psychiatrist, played in the Ladie’s Event of the 2005 WSOP where she was eliminated by the events’ eventual champion, actress Jennifer Tilly.)

To date, after his record-setting eleven WSOP bracelets, Hellmuth’s estimated tournament winnings are almost $6 million, and he is ranked Number 6 on the World Series of Poker Money List.