How I Accidentally became the Poker GOAT

Sometimes the best hands are the ones you never meant to play

Hey there, Phil Hellmuth here! Welcome to the start of my Substack journey, excited to have you along for the ride!

If you’re thinking "Who is this guy and why should I care?" Fair question. Let me tell you a little about myself, and trust me, the journey from college kid to poker legend is way more interesting than you'd think.

How I Accidentally Became a Poker Player

Picture this: It's 1984, I'm a junior at the University of Wisconsin, just trying to get through college like any normal kid. I stumble into a poker game at the Memorial Union. It’s this world-famous building where you could smoke pot and not get busted, and where all those anti-Vietnam War protests happened.

Here's the funny part: they were totally cool with pot smoking, but if you were caught playing poker for actual money? No chance. So we had to get creative. We played with Austrian coins so they couldn't tell we were gambling, and we played these "weird" games they'd never heard of like Texas Hold'em and Pineapple Hold'em. Not seven-card stud like the old-timers played.

I've always loved games, so naturally, I got hooked. Then I found what I called the "doc's game" playing with doctors, lawyers, and PhDs. These were smart guys, really nice people, but absolutely horrible at poker. I'm talking about a game where the youngest player was 40, and then there's 20-year-old Phil Hellmuth cleaning house.

One night I won $2,100, and remember, this is 1984, so multiply that by like 10 in today's money. I'm sitting there with more cash than I'd ever seen, and I'm thinking, "Holy shit, maybe I'm actually good at this."

The Vegas Reality Check

So naturally, I did what any cocky college kid would do, I headed to Las Vegas with my $20,000 bankroll, thinking I was hot stuff. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

Vegas was filled with what I call "hometown champions". Every good poker player from every small town in America who had made money locally eventually moved to Vegas. So I'm walking into games with the best of the best, and they absolutely destroyed me.

I'm talking about losing 10 trips in a row. I'd go to Vegas, lose $3,000 or $5,000, come back home to Wisconsin, win a couple grand in the local games, then head back to Vegas and lose $4,000. Rinse and repeat until I was completely broke.

Maybe on the 8th or 9th trip, I finally won. And you know what? I felt sick to my stomach. I called my parents and said, "I feel terrible, and I just won!" They told me, "You feel sick because you're not used to winning." They were right. I said, "Well, I better get used to it."

By the time I was 22, I had finally learned how to compete with those hometown champions and actually started to beat them. That's when everything changed.

The Moment it got Real

Fast forward to when I'm 23. I've got about $60,000 in the bank, and I'm sitting in this absolutely terrible bar in Madison, Wisconsin. We're talking dark, dingy, the kind of place your mom would cross the street to avoid. I'm playing pool for twenty bucks a game (and losing most of them), I've been drinking and smoking pot, and it's 4 PM on what should have been a perfectly good day.

I wanted to play golf, but there was still ice on the ground from the night's snow. So instead, I'm in this dump. People were playing $2-4 poker where a big pot might be $200. I've got sixty grand in my pocket and I'm thinking, "What the f*** am I doing here?"

Then that Talking Heads song starts playing in my head—you know the one: "Same as it ever was, same as it ever was." And I'm sitting there thinking, "What the f*** kind of life is this? What are you doing with your life?"

So I stumble outside, and BAM the sun hits me right in the face, bouncing off all this melting snow like some kind of divine spotlight. It was literally and figuratively a moment of light. I called a taxi (because I wasn't completely stupid), went home, and started writing like a madman.

The Vision Gets Clear

I'm talking pages and pages of goals, these weird pyramids of good and bad habits, and this crystal-clear vision of where I wanted my life to go. Exercise: good. Sleep: good. Meditation: at the very top. Drinking and drugs: bad. Compulsive gambling: also bad (ironic, I know).

But here's the key insight that changed everything: I drew another pyramid showing how money flows in poker. It starts with little home games, then flows to bar games, then to small casinos, then bigger casinos, and finally all the way to the top, to the best players in Vegas. All the money in poker funnels up to the best players in the world.

If I wanted to be great, if I wanted to become a millionaire, I had to compete at the highest rung of that ladder. I had to become the best poker player in the world. Not just good. I had to be the best. 

The Magic List

That night, I wrote down everything I wanted to achieve. Win the World Series of Poker Main Event. Write a New York Times bestseller. Buy a house. Meet and marry an amazing woman. The whole nine yards.

My wife found that list two years later, and get this—by 2004, I had checked off every single item. Every. Single. One. When Harper Collins called to tell me "Play Poker Like the Pros" hit the bestseller list, that was the final box checked. Wild, right?

Fast Forward to Today

So here I am now. I've got 17 World Series of Poker bracelets under my belt, wrote a New York Times bestseller, hosted some TV shows, and advised 32 different companies. I've been married to the same amazing woman for 36 years, we've got two sons who are both trying their hand at professional poker, and despite being “rich and famous”, I've never cheated on my wife.

What You're Getting Yourself Into

So here's the deal with this Substack. I'm not just going to talk about the serious stuff (though we'll definitely get into goal-setting, business insights, and what I've learned from competing at the highest levels for decades).

I'm also going to tell you some absolutely ridiculous stories from my life. Like the time I... well, I'll save those for down the road. Trust me, when you've been around as long as I have and done the things I've done, you collect some pretty wild tales with some wild people.

And yes, for all you poker fans out there, we'll definitely dive into strategy down the line. I mean, 17 bracelets don't win themselves, and I've got some thoughts on how the game has evolved and where it's heading.

Welcome to the Show

So whether you're here for business insights, life lessons, poker strategy, or just want to hear some crazy stories on my journey to becoming the greatest tournament player of all time, you're in the right place.

I'm excited to share this with you. We're going to have some fun, learn some things, and who knows? Maybe you'll have your own moment of light along the way.

Let's do this thing.

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P.S. - I also wrote a book called "Positivity" with eight life tips that basically explain how I got here. Just saying.