Top 108 Quotes & Sayings by Phil Hellmuth

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American celebrity Phil Hellmuth.

Last updated on December 23, 2024.

Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and he is a 2007 inductee of the WSOP's Poker Hall of Fame. He is widely regarded as one of the luckiest tournament players of all time, and often refers to himself as the LOAT.

American - Celebrity | Born: July 16, 1964

Source: Wikipedia

In 1987, I wrote a goal sheet. I didn't want to waste my life. I'd dropped out of college, and there was a lot of pressure from my parents. I decided, 'If you're going to do this, you're going to become the best in the world at this.'

Phil Hellmuth

I guess you can say that my unwillingness to accept failure is what drives my success.

Phil Hellmuth

On the road, I have all these celebrity superstars tell me how great I am and how much they like my style.

Phil Hellmuth

Every poker player has ups and downs because luck is also involved. When a great poker player smashes, he's making the right moves and making the right reads and he's getting lucky.

Phil Hellmuth

Michael Phelps truly has a ton of poker talent.

Phil Hellmuth

I normally raise pre-flop with K-K or A-A but occasionally I'll limp in, especially if it appears that the others at the table are playing tight. I don't want anyone to fold too soon when I've got such a big hand.

Phil Hellmuth

If you are too into the fans and adoration and the world thinking you are the greatest, then you do not perform well.

Phil Hellmuth

The flop bet is a useful tactic for both old-school and new-school players because it can be effective if you are strong, weak, or somewhere in between. Betting out weak on a bluff can allow you to pick up an uncontested pot while betting out strong gives you the opportunity to control the size of the pot.

Phil Hellmuth

We have hillbillies with third grade educations and 8th grade educations who have conquered the poker world. There is no telling why someone is great at reading other people. Some people just are.

Phil Hellmuth

Sometimes when you look back, you think I wish I would have played this hand differently or that hand differently. But then you have to understand that you can't go back and to focus on the present. Whether or not you're applying the lessons you've learned from mistakes you've made in the past.

Phil Hellmuth

I'm pretty tall, and I'm always dressed in black.

Phil Hellmuth

Playing only when you have a strong hand, also known as being a slave to the cards, is simply not the way to win tournaments.

Phil Hellmuth

Poker is really about reading people. What happens when you bluff? What does it look like when the other guy bluffs? Does he look right, does he look left? Under what circumstances does he fold or call?

Phil Hellmuth

If I'm going to play without any rest I might as well not play at all. I rest a lot but I work a lot too.

Phil Hellmuth

My wife is incredibly supportive of me.

Phil Hellmuth

Players talk about pot odds all the time, especially when they try to justify a call that they made. Whenever I hear this line of reasoning, though, I can't help but wonder if they properly thought through the consequences of their call.

Phil Hellmuth

Keeping my emotions in check translates to me playing a lot better.

Phil Hellmuth

I used to have a routine where I would eat a meal during the World Series of Poker. I would play, they would call it a day and I would go work out. I would always order poached salmon with mushrooms and I would dip the salmon into a side of ranch dressing.

Phil Hellmuth

Just because you're sitting at a poker table with some guy doesn't give him the right to say whatever the hell he wants about the way you live your life.

Phil Hellmuth

I'm a big believer in the power of your own words.

Phil Hellmuth

The more records you put up, the longer they talk about you.

Phil Hellmuth

I guess I'm the happiest when I'm picking up my kids from school. The most important things on my list are my wife and kids and my health. Happiness is having a family you love.

Phil Hellmuth

If you're going to just play with patience, you're going to be at the mercy of the cards.

Phil Hellmuth

Playing fast and aggressive poker can help manufacture chips out of thin air and is one element of the game that separates the great players from the merely very good. But beware; it can be risky.

Phil Hellmuth

Most pro athletes are super competitive, super clutch, and they don't want to lose at anything.

Phil Hellmuth

Poker is about understanding human behavior and managing emotions - yours and the other guy's. That's huge in poker, and it's huge in business.

Phil Hellmuth

For five or six years, I didn't play in some of the good games leading up to the World Series of Poker, because with so many below-average players there, I reasoned it messed up my game.

Phil Hellmuth

Oakley's sunglasses are hot and I feel a little extra cool when I wear them.

Phil Hellmuth

When I don't reraise with a premium hand like K-K, I'll just smooth-call. Sometimes I just don't want to announce the strength of my hand to the entire table.

Phil Hellmuth

Poker is supposed to be fun.

Phil Hellmuth

All-star lay downs are all about reading your opponents, trusting your instincts, and then making the right move.

Phil Hellmuth

No doubt about it, in order to win the WSOP Main Event, plenty of stamina is required.

Phil Hellmuth

I think the key to poker is being steady and giving yourself a chance to win every tournament.

Phil Hellmuth

What gets lost is that half of poker is reading people. When you're reading well and you're making counterintuitive plays, a strictly math player will get scared and start making fewer moves, and then the person is even easier to read.

Phil Hellmuth

Very few players want to go home wondering if they've folded the best hand. They feel humiliated when they're bluffed out of a pot. As a result, these players make calls with marginal hands that put their entire tournament at risk.

Phil Hellmuth

When I lose a big pot, I go a little crazy.

Phil Hellmuth

It wasn't a popular thing to be a professional poker player in the '80s.

Phil Hellmuth

What you see on a lot of televised poker is highlight-reel poker. That's why I used to like 'Poker After Dark' so much. It used to catch us playing almost every single hand... It is more of a grind than people think.

Phil Hellmuth

I act the way I act and I'm not proud of it.

Phil Hellmuth

I wanted to become good at golf because I saw a lot of really successful people being good at it - and I planned on being successful.

Phil Hellmuth

It is very, very difficult to quit when you're losing. And nobody does it well.

Phil Hellmuth

Here I am getting $50,000 for personal appearances. Everyone wants a piece of me. But my kids think no one could possibly think Dad is cool.

Phil Hellmuth

If you play professionally, you can expect to go broke at some point.

Phil Hellmuth

There's more luck in poker. Getting good at golf requires a certain amount of physical aptitude. Both take a lot of patience. Both require knowing when to gamble - either with a big bluff or a high-risk shot. Both can be infuriating.

Phil Hellmuth

Models are interested in me, mostly because of my 'bad boy of poker' image.

Phil Hellmuth

There is your persona and then there's the real you. I was living inside my persona too much.

Phil Hellmuth

I'm so much better off when I trust my instincts. But they're not perfect.

Phil Hellmuth

When I started playing, I saw a lot of people who were 45 and unhappy. I told myself I'd never be in a position where I had to play all the time. And I haven't been.

Phil Hellmuth

I wanted to be famous and I wanted to make a fortune, and I've done that.

Phil Hellmuth

Through all the craziness, what I know is that I'm a good husband and a good father and I do a great job with my kids.

Phil Hellmuth

I have a super-balanced life, and I'm a super balanced guy.

Phil Hellmuth

When strangers walk up to me and want to play golf for money, I worry. I wonder why they're coming to me, and I begin asking questions: When did you start playing? What's your best score? Are you playing your best golf right now? Where do you play? Usually I can tell if they're lying.

Phil Hellmuth

There are times when success doesn't make sense on a purely mathematical basis. I've played absolutely perfectly before, put in a masterful performance, and then my perfect play evaporated because one guy lost his mind and got lucky. Of course, I've also won that way.

Phil Hellmuth

If you read people great then you can become a great No Limit Hold 'Em player.

Phil Hellmuth

I'm the good guy, I'm a family guy.

Phil Hellmuth

I guess if there weren't luck involved, I'd win 'em all.

Phil Hellmuth

I've been an idiot at the poker table for a long time.

Phil Hellmuth

I'm trying to make history. I've always put history above money.

Phil Hellmuth

I bought a midnight blue Porsch with a whale tail when I was winning big one time in L.A. That car was fast, fast, fast!