Phil Hellmuth Jr.
Phil Hellmuth Jr. is a professional poker player who is frequently known as “The Poker Brat” for his arrogance and bad attitude. However, Phil Hellmuth Jr. is one of the best Texas Holdem players in the world, and some of his arrogance is indeed justified.
Phil Hellmuth Jr. was born in Madison, Wisconsin on July 16, 1964 and came to poker after dropping out from the University of Wisconsin. At the age of 24, Phil won the 1989 World Series of Poker Main Event, becoming the youngest champion in the history of the event. This was a difficult task, as Phil Hellmuth Jr. had to go heads up against two-time champion Johnny Chan, who had won in 1987 and 1988.
Phil Hellmuth Jr. has proven his skill time and time again, as he now has ten World Series of Poker bracelets, the most recent coming in 2006, and all of them coming in Texas Holdem. Phil Hellmuth Jr. is good at other poker games too, as he won The World’s Biggest Seven-card Stud Tournament in Austria. He has won more than 50 major poker tournaments around the world, a testament to his great poker skill.
Widely respected for his skill, if not his personality, Phil Hellmuth Jr.’s fellow poker professionals voted him “The world’s best all around poker tournament player” in 1996.
One of Phil Hellmuth’s famous quotes that truly reflects his personality is “If luck weren’t involved, I guess I’d win every one.” This was said after he took a particularly bad beat against a player who had indeed made a not-so-smart play. Phil Hellmuth Jr. is known for such remarks, making fun of his opponents’ skills or lack thereof, as he is always annoyed whenever his opponents beat him when they make bad decisions. Phil Hellmuth Jr. once had to have his head shaved after betting with Robert Varkonyi that Varkonyi would not win the 2002 WSOP Main Event. After the tournament was over, Phil Hellmuth’s head said goodbye to its hair.
Recently, Phil Hellmuth Jr. has tried to become a better person, taking yoga classes, and striving to correct his bad attitude. He and his wife have also made large charity donations. This change in behavior is party due to the loss of about $600,000 to Phil Ivey in a heads up Chinese Poker cash game.
Phil Hellmuth Jr. has estimated that he could make more than $400 million a year without playing one hand of poker. He has written four poker books, Play Poker Like the Pros, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, Texas-Hold’em, and The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played, as well as an autobiography, Poker Brat. Phil Hellmuth Jr. has his own series of sunglasses, his own clothing line, his own poker chip set, several poker video games and poker videos, and makes a lot of money from all of these products. Phil Hellmuth Jr. is also a host on Bravo Network’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” succeeding Phil Gordon in 2006.
Phil Hellmuth Jr. formally endorsed UB Poker. After the indictments of 2011, Phil Hellmuth Jr. and the rest of the UB Poker team no longer play there. Phil Hellmuth Jr. typically plays in the $10,000 max buy-in No Limit Holdem ring games as well as in large buy-in poker tournaments.
