Phil Hellmuth, or “the poker brat” as he is sometimes called is not only one of the biggest characters in poker, but also one of the most successful. Hellmuth is predominantly a tournament poker player who has been dominating tournaments since the 1980’s now and even at 51 shows no signs of slowing down. Phil Hellmuth began his playing career in Madison, Wisconsin while he was studying at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. However it was not long into his poker playing career that Helmuth decided to drop out of college to take up poker and has never looked back since. As early as 1989 Phil Hellmuth took down the WSOP Main event at the age of 24 for $755,000 which made him the youngest winner to do so at the time.
Since taking that bracelet down Hellmuth has gone on to win another 13 WSOP Bracelets making him the all time leader in WSOP bracelets - a title that many people believe will never be broken. However it is not only the bracelets that Phil has won as he boasts a staggering $18 million in tournament winnings making him the 4th highest winner on the all time money list behind only Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Colman, and Daniel Negreanu! However unlike some other pro’s like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth is a very polarised character where people either love him or hate him.
This is mainly due to his antics at the table where he is known as the poker brat doing everything from grand entrances to blowing up in peoples faces after a hand. Love him or hate him it’s hard to deny though that he is thoroughly entertaining to watch. So while not everyone is in love with his attitude it’s hard to deny that most people are in awe with his fantastic tournament game which players have been trying to emulate for a long time now!
