No Player Performs Better at the World Series of Poker Than Phil Hellmuth
Late Monday night, Phil Hellmuth earned his record 14 gold bracelet after he made his 109th World Series of Poker cash in the $10,000 Razz Championship event at the 2015 WSOP. With that, Hellmuth climbed to $18,557,285 in live tournament earnings, where he remains in seventh place overall, just under $2,000,000 short of Sam Trickett.
Hellmuth, who has one other gold bracelet in the game of razz, also climbed from eighth to first on the WSOP's all-time razz money list.
When it comes to the WSOP, there is no player more celebrated than Hellmuth. Oftentimes his antics at the table can rub many the wrong way, and it's certainly the reason he's earned the nickname "The Poker Brat," but it's hard to argue that he's not the greatest WSOP player ever.
Let's take a look at all of Hellmuth's WSOP bracelet wins:
| Year | Event | Entries | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | $10,000 WSOP Main Event | 178 | $755,000 |
| 1992 | $5,000 Limit Hold'em | 84 | $168,000 |
| 1993 | $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em | 284 | $164,000 |
| $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em | 173 | $173,000 | |
| $5,000 Limit Hold'em | 69 | $138,000 | |
| 1997 | $3,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em | 170 | $204,000 |
| 2001 | $2,100 No-Limit Hold'em | 441 | $316,550 |
| 2003 | $2,500 Limit Hold'em | 194 | $171,400 |
| $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em | 398 | $410,860 | |
| 2006 | $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em | 754 | $631,863 |
| 2007 | $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em | 2,628 | $637,254 |
| 2012 | $2,500 Razz | 309 | $182,793 |
| 2012 | €10,450 WSOP Europe Main Event | 420 | €1,022,376 |
| 2015 | $10,000 Razz | 103 | $271,105 |
In each of these wins, Hellmuth was faced with some pretty serious competition, given the time periods. Only two of the 14 players Hellmuth has faced heads up in his bracelet victories have career live tournament winnings of less than $1,000,000 (Steve Kopp with $655,877, and Mike Gorodinsky with $975,782). Amongst those second-place finishers, there are 31 bracelets represented.
Since 1989, when Hellmuth scored his first piece of gold jewelry by winning the WSOP Main Event, he's averaged 0.52 gold bracelets per year in a time period that's lasted two and a half decades. The only other players with five bracelets or more and a higher win rate at the WSOP are Jeff Lisandro and Phil Ivey. Lisandro has won six gold bracelets since winning his first in 2007, for a win rate of 0.67 bracelets per year. Ivey has won 10 gold bracelets since he won his first in 2000 for a rate of 0.63 bracelets per year.
Sitting behind Hellmuth on the WSOP's all-time cashes list is Erik Seidel, who is currently making his 92nd WSOP cash in the money in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Championship. Hellmuth has 109 WSOP cashes and will likely tally up a couple more over the rest of the summer, and it's hard to imagine he'll ever be caught. He's 50 years old, but still has plenty of spirit to play the WSOP each and every year. As long as he sticks around and there are 70-80 (or more) gold bracelet events a year, the cashes should continue to pile up.
When you factor all of this information in together — 14 bracelets, No. 1 on the WSOP all-time cash list, a Main Event title in Las Vegas and Europe, 0.52 gold bracelets per year, and more — Hellmuth is Mr. WSOP.
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