Poker Brat

Phil Hellmuth's Autobiography

By: Phil Hellmuth

Narrated by: Phil Hellmuth

If you know Phil Hellmuth then you either love him or hate him!

His rants, tirades, and lines like "I can dodge bullets, baby" and "If it weren't for luck, I'd win them all" are epic and have earned him the nickname "Poker Brat." However, whether you love him or hate him, he is undoubtedly the greatest poker player of our time. Phil is a global poker icon who holds every record at the World Series of Poker, including an extraordinary 14 world championships.

In Poker Brat Phil paints a picture of his early Midwestern life, in which he struggled mightily in grade school and high school, but always had aspirations to do something great. Phil takes you from the low lows of his life to the high highs, and shows you how he developed an unhealthy ego along the way, which eventually turned into his "Poker Brat" persona.

In Poker Brat, Phil shares his own powerful tips and techniques, the ones that he used to set his goals, and then he shows how he achieved those goals as he climbed to the summit of the poker world.

©2017 D&B Publishing (P)2017 D&B Publishing

Extremely well written

I must admit, I got this because of how much I love The Godfather of Poker by Doyle Brunson (Rest in Power) but much to my surprise, thus book has made me a fan of the brat

great book by a great poker player. shares all.

loved this book and learning more about Phil other than his antics. great listen

Wasnt a Phil Fan

This book is a great read . Phils life is very different from what I imagined. I really have alot of respect and love for him after reading his story.

inspiring! thanks for telling your life story Phil

I am a huge fan of Poker and a poker player myself. not particularly a Phil Hellmuth fan to begin with but after reading this story and my fan for sure. for me this humanizes the Superstar Phil Hellmuth.

The poker brat.. how many names can I drop today?

Phil narrates his own story and does quite well. He tells stores of tournaments he's won and lost going back some 30 years, but I'm not sure how he recalls exact hands and specific action.

Overall this book is quite engaging. If you can get past the name-dropping (he loves to remind us how famous he is), it's very well done.

Recommended!

interesting... BUT

I like poker, and have respect for Phil. His life story, especially the early years are interesting. I wish there was more depth into what was going on mentally during his tournament runs, and how he preps, and how a big time poker player financially handles the swings. Still worth the read/listen. Warning, towards the end, alot of names and products and whatnot, that aside, still entertaining.

Would have loved his wife's counterpoint to some of the events. Would have been a great touch.

Phil tells his story his way

A lot of name.dropping and self love but he tells a 10 thousand foot view of his life and playing poker pretty well. if you are a fan read it otherwise pass.

Few real “professional” in poker

A good American story. You can now (at least) understand why he’s always unset when opponents beat him with “gambling” hands. His idea of “good player” is somewhat similar to Howard Marks (investor). He doesn’t count lucky win or unlucky lose but cares more about how well each individual played (though it always looks like a total loser & makes us laugh when he is blown up about that after losing all of his chips).

His record of being the holder of most bracelets & in-money kinda proves, knowing his idea of “good player,” why he kept saying he is the best poker player in the world. It’s like Warren Buffett kept saying he is the best investor in the world (he doesn’t do that).

It’s impressive that he emphasizes a lot on family, even though I can see it wasn’t a smooth journey considering his “ego issue.” Regardless, It’s a smart decision of him to put importance in family when his job is a structurally unstable one.

It’s a good American story and I admire the country which even this kind of person can rise as long as they find their strengths (I’m not an American).

Autobiography or just a sales pitch?

A good amount of his book was spent on bragging about his successful business ventures, and I could get behind that being an autobiography. Where I couldn't take it anymore is when he started bragging about all his famous friends... droning on for hours at a time talking about hanging out with Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, etc. How we played a low limit poker game with the most successful people in the world and bragging relentlessly about their successful business ventures. If I wanted to know about the COO of Uber, Angel Investors, or the Co-Founder of Twitter I would go buy a book about them. I particularly cringed at the product description of the tequila he endorses and his headphones "perfect chrome inlay's, just screaming of elegance."

25% of his book was selling his current investments and telling you how rich his friends are. Glad that book is finished... tough listen.

"Perfectly Ethical".....what a joke!

I've watched poker on TV for several years and just this past year started actually playing it. I purchased this book because I wanted to read about the live games and poker tournament strategies different stories and although they are in this book most of the book has to do with Phil Hellmuth and him being God's gift to the world. i i i me me me all throughout the book. I was very disappointed that the author also read the book on audio it is the worst audio performance out of all of the over 100 books that I have listened to. He should stick to Poker. although it cannot be questioned that Phil Hellmuth is one of the world's best poker players he is also one of the most arrogant narcissistic insecure individuals that I have read about. Towards the end of the book he actually blames his wife because he was on the road and was tempted by another woman.... total display of his narcissism and self-centeredness. I think it's at the end of the book where feel again for the second or third time refers to himself as being "perfectly ethical. I can't help but think of all of the poor sportsmanship and verbal abuse he has committed on other gentleman players while watching different TV tournaments. perfectly ethical........ what a joke. I've lived almost 50 years on this Earth and I have never met one perfectly ethical person in my life including myself there is only one who walked this Earth who is perfectly ethical and that's Jesus Christ. my theory is that in spite of all of the money and all of the accomplishments Phil Hellmuth has done in poker he is still insecure about himself and he wants to make sure the world knows all of the good stuff that he does and has done. I think about a person like Jack Nicklaus the world's best golfer and you see one interview after another and he rarely we'll talk about his accomplishments and less he's asked now that guy is a Class Act