By Doug Doyle
PublishedMay 19, 2024 at 4:38 PM EDT
Phil Hellmuth is considered by most as the greatest poker tournament players of all-time. He's a 2007 inductee of the World Series of Poker’s Hall of Fame and has won a record 17 World Series of Poker bracelets.
Phil Hellmuth joined SportsJam with Doug Doyle to talk about his career and the reasons for his success on and off the table.
Doug Doyle/Zoom
The 2024 Wold Series of Poker Tournament of Champions will run at the legendary Commerce Casino in Los Angeles starting on May 22. It's a tournament that Hellmuth is excited about.
"It's going to be a fun one. It's the first time I think there's ever been a World Series of Poker bracelet handed out in Los Angeles. You know during the World Series of Poker it's written in all my contracts that I can't be bothered with other business matters. So that's when I just get to focus on poker everyday. I'll be calling other great players to talk about hands and the tournament the next day. So from May 28 to July 17 it will all be about poker."
Phil Hellmuth
Hellmuth won his 17th bracelet at the 2023 WSOP last summer and is looking to make it 18 in LA. He's confident his success is far from over.
I kind of had a vision that I was going to win 24 bracelets and I've kind of felt like that's what is going to happen. I have 12 seconds and 17 firsts, so the all-time total is important and I just have to keep adding on to the that. I need to keep myself healthy and Just keep moving forward."
What is Hellmuth's secret to playing at such a high level at the table for so many years?
"It's my reading ability. I nicknamed it 'White Magic.' The only reason I named it White Magic because Black Magic sounded too negative. That's what separates me. It turns out that only three to seven percent has great reading ability. If you have that reading ability, you can use that in two ways. One, you play very patiently and wait for your spots, so your reading abilities can kick in later. Or two, when you know someone else is weak you can just raise them out of the hand. If you're doing that a lot you're actually winning free chips. If I play in a tournament and 15 times I make a move and I get away with all 15 then I'm going to have to be really unlucky to be eliminated from that tournament. This White Magic, this reading ability I think gives me nine lives in some tournaments. Any time you have extra lives you have a much better chance to win."
Phil Hellmuth/WSOP
Hellmuth has always had a love-hate relationship with fans of poker. He refers to himself as the John McEnroe of poker because of his outbursts and demeanor at the table. His nickname is Poker Brat. His famous entrances to tournaments are legendary. He's dressed up in lavish costumes like Julius Caesar, Neptune and General Patton. One can't deny his antics have led to great promotion and notoriety for the game of poker. So much, Phil and a few others are responsible for the growth of power.
"If you take that on too much then you get too co*cky. I do believe in promoting poker, promoting the game and a lot of the things that I do are around promotion of poker."
I’ve heard you mention several times that you get just too tired to compete in some events….can you explain the mental strain that’s involve in playing big-time poker tournaments that can go on for a long time?
Phil Hellmuth
Hellmuth, who was born in Madison, Wisconsin and lives in Palo Alto, California, is proud to say he's been married to Katherine Sanborn for more than three decades, and has two grown-up sons.
"I'm a family man and my wife I've been with for 35 years. She's a doctor at a major university. I'm just very lucky and our kids are 33 and 30. One lives a mile north and the other lives a mile south. It's fantastic."
In 1989, the 24-year-old Hellmuth became the youngest player to win the Main Event of the WSOP by defeating the two-time defending champion Johnny Chan.
Phil Hellmuth's tremendous success has made him a very wealthy man. He admits it's important to have proper money management and that it's important to be very aware of how gambling without limits can be deadly.
"Money management is just huge. I used to made fun of by the younger generation in '03,'04,'07, 2010, 2012 and 2015 and they always made fun of me because I wouldn't take enough chances with my money. Now it turns out that maybe I'm the riches poker player in the world, I think there's something to having really good money management."
You can SEE the entire SportsJam with Doug Doyle interview with Phil Hellmuthhere.
