Phil Hellmuth, no longer just a kid, puts his cards on the table.
By David Fantle
Cut to Binion’s poker room in Las Vegas in 1989, where a brash, 24-year-old upstart from Madison, Wis.—none other than Phil Hellmuth, Jr.—upset two-time defending champ Johnny Chan, becoming the youngest person ever to win the World Series of Poker. The game of poker hasn’t been the same since.
Now 42, Hellmuth, with career winnings approaching $10 million and 10 World Series of Poker titles, may no longer be a kid, but he still accepts the title of “Poker Brat.”
In fact, “The Poker Brat” is the likely name of a major feature film set to go before the cameras this year, chronicling Hellmuth’s rise from a tall, awkward, “average” student growing up in Madison to the beginnings of his superstar status in one of the country’s fastest growing games.
Just check out some of Hellmuth’s antics on YouTube, and you’ll see how he earned the nickname. With his trademark sunglasses—used to intimidate his opponents—his poker game tantrums are reminiscent of an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show” or a WWE “SmackDown” match. It’s hard to surf the cable stations these days without coming across several channels airing some type of poker show, many featuring Hellmuth.
While Hellmuth acknowledges that his brash persona has played a role in popularizing the game, he also credits the “hole card camera,” which lets viewers in on each hand, as well as the ease of learning the Texas Hold ’Em game of poker, as bigger reasons for the explosive growth of the game.
Hellmuth may be the master at bluffing in a high-stakes card game, but away from the poker rooms and cameras, he exposed his hand during a one-on-one interview.
He says the competitive juices flowed from an early age, thanks to often-heated family board game sessions. “I’m the oldest of five kids, and as a family, we were very competitive,” Hellmuth says from his Palo Alto, Calif., home. “We’d play a game like Scrabble, and because I was the oldest, I had to beat all of my brothers and sisters. I had to work very hard to stay ahead, because they all maintained better grades than I did. So, I had to find something in which to excel.”
Hellmuth grew up in a middle-class Madison neighborhood. The family shared one bathroom, where his mother posted a sign on the mirror that read: “You are what you think. You become what you think. What you think becomes reality.”
“We read that every time we brushed our teeth or took a shower for several years,”
Hellmuth says. “My mom believed that we can all achieve great things in life; she taught us that from an early age.”
When success came almost overnight and at such an early age, Hellmuth found himself grappling to apply those words, quickly succumbing to the pitfalls that fame and fortune can bring.
“Dealing with success was difficult at first,” he says. “The first time through the loop you think you’re just great. It’s a natural cycle. I thought I was the greatest, and that caused me to be more reckless. I had to deal with my ego. I became a little self-destructive, especially with my money. But, I’m proud that I avoided alcohol and drugs and kept [my destructive behavior] to my money.”
It has taken time, but Hellmuth says he has learned to better cope with his success. Outside the poker rooms, he has proven to be a shrewd businessman, parlaying his name into a financial and marketing juggernaut. His growing portfolio now includes best-selling books, a syndicated newspaper column, a line of clothing and Oakley sunglasses, a poker course at drinkproplayer. com, and a new Xbox 360 World Series of Poker game.
But the most compelling part of Hellmuth’s story may be his complex relationship with his father, Phil, Sr.
His father was an assistant dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the letters MBA, J.D. and Ph.D. after his name. He also had higher aspirations for his eldest son than hanging around smoke-filled poker rooms.
“As the oldest, there’s pressure to set a standard and go in a certain direction,” Hellmuth says. “My father was all about education and grades. I kind of rebelled against that, and it caused quite a bit of conflictand tension between us when I was in my late teens and early 20s. On top of that, I became a professional poker player. Today, that’s kind of cool. But back then, it was akin to becoming a drug dealer.”
Hellmuth’s father was devastated when he dropped out of college to pursue poker full time. A “better understanding” between father and son began when Hellmuth became a finalist in the World Series of Poker.
“I actually promised to buy him a new Mercedes if I won,” Hellmuth says. “So I convinced him to fly out to Las Vegas to watch the finals. I won the tournament and made good on my promise to buy him the car. He never bothered me about playing poker again!”
Hellmuth has made further amends by marrying someone with an M.D. after her name, someone who also attended his dad’s alma mater, the University of Chicago. They left Madison for Northern California when his wife, Kathy, a psychiatrist, took a residency position at Stanford University. They have two teenage sons, Phil III and Nick.
As a part of handling fame and fortune, Hellmuth is learning philanthropy, leveraging his popularity by participating in a number of poker-related fund-raising events. His appearances have benefited “fallen officers” in Phoenix, a children’s hospital in Dallas and Red Cross hurricane relief efforts in New Orleans.
During his visits to Madison, the extended Hellmuth family still gathers around the kitchen table for heated games of Scrabble. His parents no longer live in his childhood home, but for Hellmuth, those trips to the bathroom still conjure up those words on the mirror. Only now, the words resonate. For the Poker Brat, life is all aces!
