Perfect 10

After narrowly missing out earlier in the WSOP, Phil Hellmuth captured his 10th bracelet in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em rebuy event. We caught up with him to offer our congratulations and found a different, slightly more subdued Phil Hellmuth. Has the Poker Brat persona gone forever?

PokerPlayer: You seem a lot more focused this year than in previous World Series events. Any particular reason?
Phil Hellmuth: Well, I lost my cell phone in London back in June and I thought to myself, ‘That’s a good thing.’ It wasn’t, of course, for the people who wanted to get in touch with me, but I don’t care, I don’t want a damn cell phone. And I changed my email address – they were two key things. It’s all about the poker. All I cared about was getting that bracelet. I haven’t left Vegas; I normally fly back to my family but this year they’ve been flying to me.

PP : So is this the future for Phil Hellmuth? Is business now second to poker? [30 seconds of silence…]
PH: Sorry, I’m losing track of what I’m saying I’m so frickin’ tired. I played poker all night long in a $1,500/$3,000 game and won $60,000. What I’m trying to say is there was an opportunity to make $100m in business so I went along that road and that was number one. Now poker’s number one; well, actually family’s always number one, but business was ahead of poker for a while and now it’s poker again.

PP: How did you feel going into the first final table where you lost heads-up?
PH: My mind was really focused on poker and it all went smoothly until I was heads-up. Being eliminated in second place in that tournament was the first time in my life where I really surprised myself – I wasn’t that upset. I did ask the guy if he wanted to play heads-up for $1m right there and then, so there was a little steam, but he declined. I even told him I’d lay him a million-and-a-half to a million to play, but he said no.

PP: There was a hand where he showed a bluff and you seemed to lose your composure…
PH: You guys got it all wrong, you don’t understand, but it’s okay. These guys can’t get to me by showing me a bluff. Yeah, okay I talked to myself for a minute or two but he made a huge mistake – he showed me what he looked like when he’s bluffing. Are you kidding me? I played with Mike Matusow for 10 hours with him talking to me constantly at the TOC, and that didn’t get to me, so you think some random guy off the street is going to get to me? Never in a million years. That had nothing to do with it. What a rookie mistake. You never, never show a bluff to the great five players in the world. You don’t show it to Johnny Chan or Phil Hellmuth, you take it and smile.

PP: Were you under pressure after that to get the 10th?
PH: There’s never been this little pressure on me at the WSOP – I’ve not had sweaty palms the whole time I’ve been out here. Now it’s about winning poker tournaments, about inspiration rather than desperation, and money’s not an issue.

PP: Was it hard when Chan and Brunson made it to 10 before you?
PH: It was a bit hard because I wanted to be first to 10, because 10 is a milestone. Now I’m 100 percent behind them to win another bracelet. Last year I was rooting for them too, but probably only about 70 percent, you know what I mean [laughs]. Chan and Brunson were rooting for me this year – Brunson 100 percent, Chan maybe 80 percent. I knew that… I announced it, he started laughing.

PP: How many bracelets do you want to win?
PH: 24. I had a vision I was going to win 24. I’ve won 10 and I figure I have 35 more years. Doyle’s still winning at 71 so I figure I have 35 years to win 14 more bracelets.

We’re suddenly interrupted by the Devilfish who wants Hellmuth on his stand for a photograph…

PH: Well, you know Devilfish, you can’t use the photograph for Devilfish stuff…
DF: No, I want it for myself in my front room, you bastard. Anyway, I want a word with you about a great idea.

Phil disappears for a couple of minutes before returning…

PP: So if you’re saying it’s not the money it’s the poker, is it the WSOP that’s all important?
PH: The WSOP is where all the great players come to play. The World Poker Tour has been relegated to more of a secondary league. They had the chance to take over poker, they could have owned the WSOP but they didn’t do the deal when they could have. Instead they went out and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to try to make the most money we can, take it public and make our hundreds of millions.’ It was a bit of a shortsighted strategy. And their final table structure is awful. Everyone hates it and they won’t change it – it’s the sickest thing ever. You play great poker for three days and they put you on a final table that lasts three hours and they double the blinds every whatever… I mean, come on! So they came in and changed the game for the worse as far as that goes. They’re making a TV show not a poker tournament. On the other hand I owe the WPT because they blew poker up. But all the greats are here at the WSOP and we know this is where you need to be if you want to make history.

Phil’s 10 bracelets

23/7/06 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em – $631,863
15/5/03 $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em – $410,860
26/4/03 $2,500 Limit Hold’em – $171,400
24/4/01 $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em – $316,550
6/5/97 $3,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em – $204,000
8/5/93 $5,000 Limit Hold’em – $138,000
7/5/93 $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em – $173,000
26/4/93 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em – $161,400
9/5/92 $5,000 Limit Hold’em – $168,000
15/5/89 $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – $755,000