Phil Hellmuth Jr. -

By: Dominick A. Miserandino

Phil Hellmuth Jr. is arguably the world's best poker player. With a record 11 World Series of Poker titles, he has been on fire at poker tables since the age of 24 when he won his first World Series of Poker championship.

Known for his unpredictability at the table and his nickname, the "Poker Brat," Hellmuth is one of the most recognizable faces in the world of poker. TCC's Kimberly Helk chatted with him about poker and his plans for the next few hands life has in store for him.

KH:Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of your first main event win in the World Series of Poker. How are you feeling about the WSOP tournament this month?

PH: Well, I need to prove a few things to myself. I didn't win a bracelet last year, I don't play in the same tournaments as most of the tour's top 100 poker players in the world. I never appear in any of the rankings even though everyone knows I'm basically number 1 in Hold'em. You'll hear Mike Sexton talk about [how] I'm the biggest favorite, so the players know that basically I'm number 1 when it comes to playing Texas Hold'em tournaments. But, you'll see I don't appear on any of the lists, you know? The reason why is I don't play very often. So I kind of stay home and I'll play when the event is televised which these televised events generally don't appear on the rankings. So the world's watching me tear up "Poker After Dark," the world's watching me tear up NBC's "Heads Up Championship" but these don't appear as official rankings so, I've been playing in 30 percent of the World Poker Tour tournaments. Maybe 35 percent. So I'm not out there, I don't play any tournaments other than the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker. It's kind of funny to me to look at the rankings each year, power rankings, and I'm never even on the list! And I'm like, "this is insane." It's because I don't play very often. And when I do, what I do try to do is I try to make history. So I don't care about all the little tournaments. What I care about is the WSOP, what I care about is NBC's "Heads Up Championship," what I care about is the World Poker Tour tournaments that I can travel to and I'm skipping everything else. It's kind of crazy. It's kind of a weird situation. So because of that, I have to test myself. I have to find out how good am I. Am I still at the top? Maybe I'm not. And so what I need to do is to prove to myself and to prove to the world that I'm still the best poker player in the world. I might not be anymore, I don't know. I know I have a set of gifts and I also have some weaknesses. So my gifts have always carried me past any weaknesses. But as millions or 10 million or 20 million new poker players have entered that arena and the very field that I'm in, you know there's world class players. Can I continue to beat all the world class players? Or will I start to fall? To me the WSOP, it's not a definitive answer, but if I were to win one or two tournaments, I think that I would be viewed by everyone, unanimously viewed by everyone as right at the top as the man. Not just by the great players who have played with me for 20 years, but by the whole world. So if I don't win anything, it's not all bad. But as long as I get down to enough final tables where I get everybody, you know what I mean? To me, it's all about winning and I need to find a way to dig down deep and use all my gifts and all my skills and minimize my weaknesses as much as possible. And it would be great to have a run that shocks the world.

KH: How do you get yourself ready for a big tournament, how do you get yourself psyched up and in the right mindset?

PH: Well, I've been a little bit lazy I think. After the last few years, I don't think that I've kept myself in as good a physical condition as I can and I don't think I've meditated enough. I don't think that I've been as single-minded. We started a publishing company and we have a book called "Deal Me In" which will be out on June 20. It's very exciting, it's a great book, it's my publishing company. I have a clothing line, I'm selling clothing all online at PokerBrat.com. So we're selling clothing all over the world. We're not selling that many pieces, you know, 5, 10, 20 pieces a day, but all over the world. And that ramping up, it's a little small still, but that's fine for me to kind of be involved with. It's my clothing line, I own some 90 percent of it or whatever. And so I'm doing some things that are fun for me. I'm also writing. I write columns every week for 10 years. So I have tons of columns. I mean I wrote 36,000 words for my autobiography in January. I just sat down and worked everyday. It was nice, you know? It was nice to write 1500 to 2000 words a day, I like that, and uh, it's very satisfying. As far as just poker goes, I think I've been a little lazy and now I find myself in a really good physical condition and I need to step up my meditations, and I need to start thinking more and more about poker. That's how you prepare. You're in good physical condition, meditating- thinking about what you need to do. You need to be ready.

KH: You've obviously embraced the nickname that you've been given, "Poker Brat," by using it for your clothing and merchandise company. But how do you feel about your "bad boy" reputation in the poker world?

PH: It's kind of fun. People in the poker world really don't consider me the bad boy. Do they consider me bratty? Yeah. But you know... I don't do drugs. I'm not a drug guy, I was never really a drug guy ever in my life. Maybe a little bit in my 20s but was never really into that stuff and I'm not a huge drinker.I will still go to the clubs, get into a VIP booth and I'll have some Dom Perignon. I've been with my wife for almost 20 years, and I have a couple of kids. And so, I think that traditionally a bad boy drinks a lot, a bad boy does drugs, a bad boy gets himself into a lot of trouble. And so, I still kind of embrace being the bad boy, it's kind of fun for me. But I think it's kind of a joke to the poker world that knows me and to the people that know me. It's like, "this guy isn't a bad boy, what are you talking about?" But at the same time, I am bratty at the table, so. Well, I tell the truth if someone plays a hand like an idiot and beats me. Sadly, I haven't learned to hold my tongue, but this year, I'm trying to be the "new Phil." So the effort is there to really handle the unlucky hands well, not get personal with your opponents. See, I never start out personal. That's the difference. Some of the guys start to attack people the moment they sit down. That's not me, I sit there and I try to play great and if I get unlucky and someone played a hand poorly against me and then I say something. It's like John McEnroe, you know, his opponent hitting a ball out and the ref calling it in and he would get enraged. So it's like me playing great and someone playing a hand poorly and beating me and I get enraged. So this year, I'm going to try not to get upset with the opponent. I'm going to try and get upset with if I have frustrations, I'm going to try not to get personal. The new Phil can still get upset, but let's not get upset at anyone in particular.

KH: You've said, "If it weren't for luck, I'd win them all." How much of a factor do you think luck really plays in poker?

PH: Well, less than the public thinks. But I don't know. I think the public's opinion of poker has changed. When I was doing these interviews in 2000 and 2001, the reporters all though that poker was just luck. And now they see that the same names continue to win, despite millions of new players coming in. A lot of the same names are still at the top. And that can't just be because they're lucky.

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