Phill grew in Madison, Wisconsin, and attended the courses of the faculty from his natal city. This is when he also discovered poker game. When he was 24 years old he decided to build a pro player career, and in 1989 he won his first WSOP bracelet, being the youngest winner of a NoLimit Hold’Em tournament of $10 000 until that date.
Name: Phillip J. Hellmuth Jr.
Nickname: The Poker Brat
Date of birth: 16, July, 1964, China
Residency: Palo Alto, California
- He won 11 WSOP bracelets.
- He earned over 9 millions of dollars by playing poker.
He then beat the double winner Johnny Chan. All of his bracelets are for Texas Hold’Em, as Phill is a specialist of this type of tournaments. In 2006, he became one of the three poker players that won over 10 WSOP bracelets and a year later he won his 11th bracelet, an absolute record, leaving home with $640 000.
Hellmuth owns the record when it comes to participating at the WSOP finale as well, having 41 finals disputed. The one nicknamed “The Poker Brat” due to his attitude at the game table did not win any World Poker Tour tournament so far, although he made it to the final for 3 times. However, he has winnings of $800 000 from WPT tournaments.
Phill is a constant presence at television, participating to numerous shows and sometimes beign a commentor. He published a few books about poker, such as “Play Poker like the Pros”, “Bad Beats and Lucky Draws”, “The Greatest Poker Hands ever Played” and “Poker Brat”.
Phill Hellmuth is married to Katherine Sanborn and has 2 children, Nicholas and Phillip III. His wife participated to 2005 WSOP, being eliminated by Jennifer Tilly, the one who won the tournament. Although he is a successful player, Phill was involved in numerous scandals because of his selfish and unprofessional attitude that makes the press delight.
He accused a player that he doesn’t know how to spell “poker” and was involved in a fight with Sam Grizzle because of his offensive words, and the most recent scandal involves the Romanian player Cristian Dragomir and took place in 2008. at WSOP 2008, Dragomir won a hand when playing with Phill by bluffing and having a weak hand (10 and 4 of diamonds). Hellmuth got annoyed and started to call Dragomir an “idiot”, being penalized and asked for the other players at the table to stop. Dragomir finished the tournament on the 29th position and Phill on 45th position.
Although he has an arrogant attitude, Phill is one of the best players in the world, and expert in Texas HoldEm and a convinced familist. He only plays in tournaments, preferring to dedicate the rest of his time to family.
