Bad temper and childish behavior cast aside, The Poker Brat is pound-for-pound the most efficient poker player in the world. He might well be the best too...
Definitely one of poker’s greats and the player with a record number of WSOP bracelets to his name, Phil Hellmuth is as well-known for his poker skills as he is for his truly unique personality. He’s been often known to blow up (especially after taking a nasty bad beat) and address his opponents’ skills in rather harsh terms. One of his worst on-screen blow-ups occurred during the taping of a Poker After Dark episode. Annie Duke had just raised into Hellmuth as fellow professionals Gus Hansen, Huck Seed, Steve Zolotow and Shawn Sheikhan just wouldn’t stop talking. Hellmuth got extremely aggravated by the chatter, and eventually left the table threatening to never return to the series. He did return after he blew off some steam though and got eliminated shortly after.
Another well-known incident involved Hellmuth’s sponsor, Ultimate Bet. For the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Ultimate Bet had arranged for Hellmuth to make a stylish entrance. They provided him with a race car, which he’d ride to the scene of the venue, where he’d meet up with 11 Ultimate Bet models (each of them representing one of Hellmuth’s bracelets). Unfortunately, he crashed the car in the parking lot so he had to ride a limo to the event after all.
Born in 1964, in Madison, Wisconsin, Phil Hellmuth Jr. has several poker-related records tied to his name. In 1989, he became the youngest poker player to win a WSOP Main Event. 24 at the time, not only did he win the Main Event by beating Johnny Chan heads-up, he prevented him from scoring his 3rd consecutive Big Dance victory, and thus setting a record that would probably never have been beat.
He scored another bracelet in 1992, and a third one in 1993, both in FL Holdem events. 1993 would see two more bracelets going Hellmuth’s way: the $2,500 NL Holdem one, the $5,000 NL Holdem one.
His next WSOP bracelet only came 4 years later, in 1997, when he won the $3,000 PL Omaha event. In 2001, he took down another NL Holdem bracelet, followed by two more bracelets won in 2003.
2006 and 2007 brought two more bracelets for him, and he nearly scored one this year too (2008).
Besides the bracelet victories listed above, he had 67 money finishes in various WSOP Events. An interesting fact about Hellmuth’s WSOP achievements is that all of his bracelets were attained in Holdem events.
Even though he put in some strong efforts in different WPT events, a title has eluded him so far. He finished 3rd in the World Poker Final at the Foxwoods in 2003, and 6th in the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic. He’s made 3 final tables altogether (the above named two plus a 3rd place finish in the 2002 Annual 49er Gold Rush Bonanza’s $3,000 NL Holdem event), and had 10 money finishes in the WPT.
He’s also participated in the National Heads-Up Poker championship where he won the inaugural event in 2005, and lost in the first rounds in 2006 and 2008. He won late Night Poker’s Season 3, and appeared on Poker After Dark as well as on High Stakes Poker.