Phil Hellmuth is the #1 player in the PocketFives Top 50 WSOP players list. (photo courtesy WSOP/Danny Maxwell)

2019 marks the 50th annual World Series of Poker. The most prestigious poker festival in history has played a pivotal role in creating many of the legends and superstars of the game. To commemorate the occasion, PocketFives editorial staff each ranked the top 50 players in WSOP history in an effort to define and rank the most important, influential, and greatest WSOP players of all time. 

Phil Hellmuth

BRACELETS CASHES WINNINGS TOP 10s
15 133 $14,496,570 62

In the long and storied history of the World Series of Poker, no player has done more – and won more – than Phil Hellmuth. That made him an easy selection as the #1 player in the history of the WSOP.

Many would believe that the story of Phil Hellmuth started when he won the 1989 WSOP Main Event, but the truth is it started one year earlier.

Hellmuth, then just 23 years old, showed up at Binion’s Horseshoe in Downtown Las Vegas and made a final table in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo event then min-cashed the Main Event. That’s where the story started, but it was indeed the following year when the legend was born.

Hellmuth put up a pair of small results in some preliminary events before the Main Event. Over six days in May, Hellmuth worked his way past 176 other players and found himself one-on-one with the two-time defending Main Event champion Johnny Chan. The pair struck a deal to flatten out the prize money, with the eventual champ getting $655,000 instead of $755,000. They made no deal on the bracelet though and Hellmuth eventually busted Chan to end Chan’s Main Event streak and give Hellmuth his first taste of WSOP glory and the accompanying fame.

Hellmuth cashed just one time over the next two years before winning a $5,000 Limit Hold’em event in 1992. That was just an appetite whetter though.

In 1993, Hellmuth won three bracelets and finished runner-up for another one. That moved him into the elite territory as one of just a handful of players with five bracelets to their name.

The rest of the ’90s weren’t quite as kind to Hellmuth. He cashed just eight more times between 1994 and 1999, including winning bracelet #6. He won a bracelet in 2001, two more in 2003 and another in 2006 to move into a tie with Chan and Doyle Brunson for the all-time lead with 10.

In 2007, Hellmuth became the first player to have won 11 bracelets, beating out 2,627 other players to win a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event.

“This is the one I really wanted,” Hellmuth said. “I have so much respect for Doyle and Johnny. To now be at the top of the all-time (WSOP wins) list is really about as good a feeling as I have ever had.”

Since winning his 11th bracelet, only Phil Ivey has managed to add his name to the list of players with double-digit wins. All the while, Hellmuth has added four more bracelets, including a win in the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2012.

Phil Hellmuth’s 15 Bracelet Wins

YEAR EVENT WINNINGS
1989 $10,000 No Limit Hold’em $755,000
1992 $5,000 Limit Hold’em $188,000
1993 $5,000 Limit Hold’em $138,000
1993 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em $161,400
1993 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em $173,000
1997 $3,000 Pot Limit Hold’em $204,000
2001 $2,000 No Limit Hold’em $316,550
2003 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em $410,860
2003 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em $171,400
2006 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em (w/rebuys) $631,863
2007 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em $637,254
2012 €10,000 Europe Main Event €1,022,376
2012 $2,500 Razz $182,793
2015 $10,000 Razz Championship $271,105
2018 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels) $485,082

Hellmuth not only sits atop the all-time bracelet list, but he’s #1 on the cashes list as well. Heading into the 2019 WSOP, Hellmuth has cashed in 133 events. When Hellmuth cashed, he has made the top 10 47% of the time, he finishes in the top two 18.7% of the time and wins 11% of the time.

Amazingly, Hellmuth also has the most runner-up finishes of any player in history with 10. He had second place finishes in 1992, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, and 2006 before spending an entire summer as a bridesmaid in 2011. He finished second to John Juanda in the $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Championship, second to Eric Rodawig in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, and then capped off his year by finishing second the Brian Rast in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

“I felt like 99 percent of the planet was rooting for me [to win the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship],” Hellmuth said. “Even if you hated me, seeing me finish second twice and knowing the pain and the turmoil that it was causing me had to be enough to say, ‘I hope you get this one.’ Of course, maybe it was out of pity. Like Greg Norman blowing the Masters to Nick Faldo (in 1996). Everybody loved Norman after that, right?”

His 10th runner-up finish came in 2014. Five of the 10 players he has lost a heads-up battle with are in the Hall of Fame (John Juanda, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Billy Baxter, Erik Seidel) and two more (Ted Forrest, Brian Rast) are likely to be enshrined at some point.

Despite not having won a bracelet, Hellmuth entered the 2011 Main Event leading the WSOP Player of the Year race. He couldn’t hold on to the lead though and ultimately finished second to Ben Lamb.

Hellmuth can easily recall all of the second place finishes and in 2011, admitted to being haunted by them.

“I still remember the second-place finish [in 2006] and how if I had just made one call …” Hellmuth said. “Those are the things that haunt you. I don’t worry about a lot of stuff. But I’ll still take a shower once in a while and I’ll think about a hand from 1993. That’s just the way it is. That’s what drives you.”