TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

Known for his tantrums, poker champ cashes in on fame with a Web site, books and endorsement

Las Vegas - For a guy who makes his living playing poker, Phil Hellmuth Jr. doesn't play as much as he used to.

The 39-year-old Madison native is the youngest winner of the World Series of Poker, has earned millions playing the game, and his life story - up to the age of 24 - has been optioned in Hollywood, with Ashton Kutcher possibly playing the part of the erstwhile Cheesehead turned poker pro.

But Hellmuth, who cut his teeth on the now-popular game of Texas Hold 'Em at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Memorial Union, is no longer just a poker player. He's a brand name.

Hellmuth gets paid to tout an online poker site, ultimatebet.com, Belvedere vodka and an interactive Texas Hold 'Em game on cell phones.

He recently signed a contract to represent a new gaming network. He's written a book on poker strategy, "Play Poker Like the Pros," and has two more books in the pipeline: "Bad Beats and Lucky Draws," to be published in October; and "The Greatest Poker Hands Ever Played" next year.

While there are plenty of great Texas Holdem poker players plying their trade on green felt, Hellmuth is among the few who stand out as a personality.

He's been called the John McEnroe of poker for his temper tantrums and his meltdowns at the card table. Hellmuth isn't the stoic gambler who quietly takes everyone's money. He's more likely to kick over his chair, wave his arms and scream at an opponent who was too dumb to throw away his cards, stayed in the hand and beat Hellmuth by catching a lucky card.

His goal is to be the greatest poker player who ever played the game.

Hellmuth, who was in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, which ends Friday and is expected to begin airing on ESPN in July, said he's actually a pussycat. He's proud of the fact that he's been married to his wife, Kathy, since 1990 - they met at UW-Madison - and has two sons. He says he's honest, respectable, pays his debts and treats people fairly.

"I deal with people from the heart. I talk to them straight up," he said. "So that's the way I am, and then there's that 1% of the time when I'm just berating my poker opponent, or throwing myself on the ground in frustration, and that's when the press catches me.

"Which, of course, is good for me because it helps me sell books. When people watch me on television they either love me or hate me."

Ratings magnet

Hellmuth, who lives in Palo Alto, Calif., is getting much more TV face time than a few years ago when he'd show up on ESPN's annual coverage of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He has made a few final tables on the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel, now in its second season, and when he does appear, he's a ratings magnet.

"America loves to watch Phil Hellmuth. Whenever he's on the show he's going to be a ratings spike," said Steve Lipscomb, CEO of the World Poker Tour.

"I root for him because he's a nice guy and I'd like him to win. But when you see him lose, he wears it on his sleeve. He's a good thing to have in our world" of television.

Companies like SUM/MUS, a developer of wireless applications for the cellular phone market, seek him out to advertise their products because he's the best brand in Texas Holdem poker.

"He's the rock star of poker," said Jim McLaughlin, SUM/MUS vice president of business development as he watched Hellmuth sign his autograph on poker chips and cards (the ace of spades seemed to be a favorite) for fans at an ultimatebet.com party at the Golden Nugget Hotel.

Hellmuth's fellow poker professionals put up with him because he's a great player and he's great for the sport. Poker legend T.J. Cloutier said it's Hellmuth's desire to win that makes him so good.

"When they say he's a poker brat, well, he is a Texas Holdem poker brat. But he's also a genius at marketing himself," Cloutier said.

Half-hour late

At the World Series of Poker, the most prestigious poker tournament in the world, Hellmuth was assigned Table 70 on the first day. Promptly at 1 p.m. Saturday, the tourney started as the announcer wished everyone good luck and told dealers it was time to "shuffle up and deal." But Hellmuth wasn't in his seat.

Ten minutes went by as the players at his table bet their chips and won and lost hands. The dealer took green $25 chips from Hellmuth's stack of $10,000 as the big and little blinds - forced bets that ensure there's action on each hand - moved around the table after each hand. Fifteen minutes went by. Twenty. No Hellmuth.

Then at 1:30 p.m. the 6-foot-6 Hellmuth strode into the card room. Clad in a black ultimatebet.com jacket and cap and wearing mirrored sunglasses, he sat down, placed his iPod on the table and selected a song. Then he began to play cards and kibitz with his opponents.

A drama and poker king

It's part of Hellmuth's persona - he usually comes late to the first day of the World Series of Poker as if to signal he doesn't have to be there at the start and can still win.

As a player on the opposite end of the table pushed six yellow $1,000 chips into the pot - a sizable bet that early in the game - Hellmuth stared him down. Seconds ticked. Finally Hellmuth folded, telling the man that he's laid down better cards and chastising him for playing too many hands.

In 20 minutes, he was down to $7,000. When his 10-high straight lost to someone with a jack-high straight, Hellmuth got up from his chair muttering. His next hand must have been lousy because he grimaced and threw it away, sighing loudly.

By 2:15 p.m. his chip stack was down to $5,800. On the next hand, the dealer turned over a 10, 8, 8, 7 and 3 of various suits and a player bet $1,500. A frustrated Hellmuth discarded his hand and got up so quickly he knocked over his chair, quickly walking out of the card room as an ESPN film crew rushed over to film his antics.

After missing a couple of hands, Hellmuth returned and calmed down through the end of the session. As he got up to leave for a 10-minute break, an elderly woman asked him to sign her autograph book. He smiled and signed.

Then to a couple of players who came up to him during the break he griped, "I've never lost this many hands in a series, and I got a guy (the yellow chip-betting player) who decides he's going to outplay me every hand."

By the end of the first day, which finished at 2 a.m., Hellmuth was still in the tournament and had run his chip stack up to $33,000.

Hellmuth started playing while he was in high school. His father, Phil, an associate dean in the UW-Madison College of Letters and Sciences, recalled coming down for breakfast on Saturday mornings to find his son and high school buddies still playing Texas Holdem poker at the kitchen table.

The younger Hellmuth quickly became good, learning to read opponents and understanding pot odds, which improved his bank account. Soon he was playing poker against Madison businessmen and professors.

"One day I looked up and I had $20,000 in the bank and my student loans were paid off and I was 21," he said. "Then I started going to Vegas a lot, and for 10 consecutive trips I lost all my money."

A farewell to academia

In 1986, while still studying accounting and philosophy at UW-Madison, he won $6,500 playing in a poker game in Wisconsin and decided his student days were over. It was a decision that didn't sit well with his father.

"He was screaming. Here's a guy whose whole life was education," Hellmuth said. "So he freaked out, a pretty normal reaction, I think. But I was just going my own way."

The elder Hellmuth, who also served on the UW Athletic Board and retired in 2000, admits he was upset when his oldest child left school.

"Education is such a big thing in our family. Both of his youngest sisters are Phi Beta Kappa and his brother is managing partner of a law firm," Hellmuth Sr. said in a phone interview from his Madison home. "But none of them has written a book that sold 100,000 copies. He has just kind of made his own way."

Still driving Mercedes

Both Hellmuths agree father didn't accept son's new lifestyle until the 1989 World Series of Poker. That year the 24-year-old faced down poker legend Johnny Chan, who had won the previous two years, to win the title.

Hellmuth Sr., who had never gone to the World Series of Poker, was in Vegas to watch his son compete.

"I said, 'If I win it, I'll buy you a new car.' I did win it - $750,000 in cash on the table," Hellmuth Jr. recalled. "I still remember when I won it, I threw my hands up in the air and within 10 seconds I looked around and said, 'Where's my dad?' "

His father still drives the red Mercedes around Madison. It now has more than 100,000 miles on it.

Hellmuth hopes to win this year's World Series of Poker. He's already had several top 20 finishes in smaller tournaments leading up to the finals. But even if he doesn't win, his persona as a great poker player appears secure.