Phil Hellmuth has the hardware to prove that he’s the greatest tournament poker player in history. Note the word ‘tournament’ there. He has 17 WSOP bracelets which is 7 more than anyone else (4 tied with 10).
Despite being the GOAT, the ‘Poker Brat’ is still quite insecure and this has manifested itself in the form of countless outbursts over the years, something that Phil Hellmuth discussed in an interview with PokerGo‘s Natalie Bode following Phil’s exit from the PGT Championship this week.
The interview has been transcribed below along with the video. Hellmuth talked about the “massive chip on (his) shoulder” despite having the hardware to prove he’s the GOAT. He discussed the need to be the best right now and not the best overall. Things got candid in a hurry and this is certainly the most vulnerable Phil Hellmuth has come across in an interview:
"I think that if you walk around thinking you're the greatest all the time then you won't improve. You won't get better, and you won't focus.
I think that's why Michael Jordan worked so hard. I think that's why Tiger Woods worked so hard. And I'm lucky enough to hang out with… pic.twitter.com/irNZ7nvsn7
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) January 10, 2024
PokerGO’s Natalie Bode: “Phil overall, were you pleased with your play today?”
Phil Hellmuth: “I’m a little frustrated that I don’t get more reps. I mean I haven’t played a tournament in the studio since March and I played the other day and I played today… So I want to show people that I can still… That I’m still at the top of the top. But you have to prove it too.”
Phil Hellmuth: “And my results the last three years are pretty phenomenal… I just… I mean I have a massive chip on my shoulder, folks. Maybe it was the way I was raised. I was never great at sports. I was never great at anything and so I think there’s a part of me deep inside that’s insecure even about my poker results even though I know how good they are. So then I’m always bragging.:
Phil Hellmuth: “I’ve had three pretty good years but I think even at this stage in my life even with everything I’ve accomplished there’s going to be some insecurity and I think that’s just part of being a human being.:
PokerGO’s Natalie Bode: “I’m surprised you feel like you still have something left to prove with all of your achievements. Is it just that you want to continue to show people you’ve still got it?”
Phil Hellmuth: “I think there’s a thing where you can be the all-time great in a sport, and maybe there’s a lot of people that give me all-time great status in Poker. But, who cares?”
Phil Hellmuth: “You want to be the greatest today. So there’s two things: all-time great. Right? My results are all-time great. But then there’s today. And so that’s where I’m pleased at (the last 3 years). You don’t want to be a ceremonial guy. You don’t want to be the guy that’s like ‘oh Phil’s here to play!’ You don’t want to be the ceremonial guy.”
Phil Hellmuth: “And so the last three years I think my results in the biggest tournaments are #1 or #2. But I’m not getting the reps that I want… So that’s pretty cool (the results) but you just never know when your time is over and I think based on what Doyle and a lot of the other great players did they were all great until their mid-70s.”
Phil Hellmuth: “So that gives me quite a bit of time to achieve my goal of 24 World Series of Poker bracelets. But yeah, there’s always insecurity. There’s insecurity about friendships. Insecurity about live in general and I think everybody listening to this can face that recognize that.”
Phil Hellmuth: “And you would think ‘wow, Phil knows he’s great… Phil knows this…’ and I’m like ‘ehhh, I don’t know,’ you know? And I think that’s part of being a human being. I think if you walk around thinking you’re the greatest all the time then you won’t improve, you won’t get better, and you won’t focus.”
Phil Hellmuth: “Doubt hits me. Doubt hits all the greats in the sports that they play. I think that’s why Michael Jordan worked so hard. I think that’s why Tiger Woods worked so hard. And I’m lucky enough to hang out with those guys. And you look at Michael’s Hall of Fame speech and it was all about ‘hey, I got dissed in high school’ and you could see some insecurity there. Same thing with Tiger.”
Phil Hellmuth: “So I think that no matter what you accomplish you’re still not going to walk around all the time (thinking you’re the greatest). Now, I walk around happy 90% of the time. 99% of the time maybe. But yeah, interesting discussions here and (gestures/jokes) ‘I’m laying my heart out… ohhhh, I’m insecure like everybody else on the planet.'”
Phil Hellmuth Interview
I was fortunate to interview Phil Hellmuth back in 2021 during his epic run at the World Series of Poker that year. At the time, he was on one of the hottest runs in WSOP history.
In the PokerGo interview above, Phil Hellmuth references his results from the ‘past 3 years’ several times. He’s almost certainly calling back to that heater he was on in the Summer of 2021.
Hellmuth also won his record-setting 17th bracelet this past Summer at the WSOP when he took down Event #72, a $ 7,000 + 3,000 No Limit Hold’em – Super Turbo Bounty for $803K after beating Justin Zaki heads-up. So he’s still playing at an extremely high level.
The references to not getting ‘enough reps’ are interesting. Phil spends a lot of his time with Silicon Valley billionaires and celebrities. He’s also a family man. But it will be interesting to see how Hellmuth prioritizes his time going forward and if he budgets more time to playing in poker tournaments and less time to meals at Nobu and court side Warriors seats.