Phil Hellmuth Launches Poker Brat

It’s been a long time coming, and whether he’s your favorite player bar none or one of those big name pros you can’t bear to watch, Phil Hellmuth’s autobiography ‘Poker Brat’ will almost certainly be a best-seller and a must-read for anyone who loves the game.

The 14-time WSOP bracelet winner and star of almost every TV poker show there has been, Hellmuth has never been shy about publicizing his own ‘greatness’ – but this time he gets a pass as everyone who has ever written a book knows that amazing feeling when it hits the shelves…

Long-time friend and foe Daniel Negreanu has written the foreword, stating: "For years Phil Hellmuth has been the most polarizing player in all of poker. Knowing the man, I think he might also be the most misunderstood,” and from the very first pages of Phil’s account we see an honesty which is often overlooked because of his outlandish tirades when things go wrong at the table.

“I had no money on my person,” writes Phil about his first foray into professional poker, a disastrous trip to Vegas shortly after dropping out of school, to the disgust of his father. “No credit cards, no friends in town to borrow money from, no way to pay my overdue hotel bill and, - worst of all – I was hungry.”

This was 1987 and one of the last times Phil would be poor and desperate, the intervening 30 years seeing him rise to the very top of the poker world, his autobiography describing the biggest events in his life; turning points such as his long-lasting marriage, the arrival of his two sons – as well as the career-defining moments at the tables, good and bad.

This isn’t Hellmuth’s first book – his ‘Play Poker Like the Pros’ becoming a bestseller and his other books, as well as thousands of syndicated poker hand columns, all well-received – but it’s the first in which he lays bare almost everything, close friend and protégé Brandon Cantu quick to add his congratulations on the latest addition to Phil’s writings…

The book was actually mostly written by 2010, but when Black Friday hit his publishers decided anything poker-related was a no-no. And then, earlier this year, D&B publishing’s Dan Addelman decided that the story of ‘The World’s Greatest Poker Player’ needed to be read, and Phil embarked on a fast and furious update of the intervening years.

The result is a mixture of the deeply personal, the self-congratulatory, the humble and the thought-provoking – and it’s well-written, as you’d expect from a man for whom words are as much a tool of his trade as the cards he is dealt.

For those hoping to see some detailed information on the Ultimate Bet scandal and Phil’s own part in it, well there is an appendix covering this horror story, but don’t expect any real revelations.

This aside, it’s a fantastic read and you can expect ‘Poker Brat’ to be flying off the shelves and taking up its rightful place in the library of every poker fan around the globe.