Phil Hellmuth makes New Year’s resolutions like anyone else, except that — unlike the rest of us — he’s willing to bet seven figures on keeping them.
While ordinary people vow to cut down on drinking, or resolve to exercise more often, Hellmuth is risking $1.5 million to shut up the haters — specifically, those who have criticized his cash-game skills.
Cash Game Criticisms A Sore Spot
Hellmuth’s reputation as a tournament player is beyond question. After all, he has managed to rack up 17 World Series of Poker bracelets, by far the most ever.
But his cash game skills are another story. For the better part of the last decade, numerous high-stakes pros have taken shots at his game, saying that he plays too passively and even calling him an outright nit.
“Phil is the greatest tournament player of all time, but he hasn’t done it in high-stakes cash games,” Daniel Negreanu wrote back in 2021.
“Phil is a tournament guy, cash games are different,” Tom Dwan once diplomatically said.
“Phil doesn’t play tough cash games,” Doug Polk told his nearly 500,000 YouTube subscribers.
A couple years ago, he was needled so much that he rage quit a cash game in the middle of a PokerGO broadcast.
Setting The Record Straight
“I do have this reputation for not doing well in cash games, but this is stuff that happened pre-2012,” Hellmuth explained.
Hellmuth does have a regular home game in Silicon Valley full of tech CEOs such as Chamath Palihapitaya and NBA stars including Draymond Green.
“Let’s be honest. I’ve made at least $10 million playing in cash games. I beat all cash games everywhere I go. I play in a regular game where I’ve won a lot of money. I play in the mixed games where I’ve won a lot of money. I play in the televised games where I’ve won a lot of money. But there are some who still think that I am horrible with cash.”
Hellmuth’s High-Stakes Logic
“I sold some companies for $10 million in 2017. [Back then] I told myself I was going to take a million and make it my [cash game] bankroll,” Hellmuth told Card Player. “And for whatever reason, I just decided not to. But this time around, I’m sure I’m going to do it. I’m going to take $1.5 million and just make that my bankroll. I am going to buy in for $1 million, of my own money, a bunch of times in 2026.”
He’s bankrolling his most recent endeavor, at least in part, with the cash he earned from the recent sale of Prize Picks, a single-player daily fantasy sports site. In December, he told me that he had a piece of the $4.1 billion payout.
Just this past week, a giddy Hellmuth, alongside Jeff Gross, shared the news in a video announcement on Twitter/X.
Print!
We sold @PrizePicks for $4.1B: I was an Advisor and an investor, @JeffGrossPoker and EDU were investors. It was a pleasure to watch our CEO/Founder @thewordpainter work!
LFG!!#POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/vMuGQ2Gpv5
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) January 30, 2026
Not too long ago, he told Card Player that he had billionaire aspirations.
Heads-Up Grudge Matches
The 61-year-old has made headlines in the last year for stating that the WSOP had too many bracelet events, and that the main event was too long.
Perhaps his move to cash games is in response to tournament fatigue, but there’s no doubting his desire to rewrite the narrative.
Even before setting off on this very intentional quest, the Poker Hall of Famer was hellbent on proving the naysayers wrong. He originally aimed to do it through the High Stakes Duel matches that aired a couple years ago on PokerGO.
As TV cameras rolled, Hellmuth squared off with Antonio Esfandiari and Negreanu in heads-up cash matches. He went into the matches with something to prove and did so in convincing style, sweeping the series against both opponents. (He also beat Nick Wright, Scott Seiver, and split two matches against Dwan.)
With Negreanu, however, the beef was personal.
“Negreanu disrespected my play,” Hellmuth told me when I interviewed him in 2022. “He said I am a lifetime loser in high rollers. I called him and said, ‘I am up $1.8 million.’ What is he talking about? Then I had to look like an asshole and tell everyone how great I am. I looked cocky, but I had to defend my legacy.”
Hellmuth A Man Of Action
This year, Hellmuth plans on proving himself through action rather than words. He believes that the $1.5 million will carry him through a lot of big-money games and the inevitable swings that come with them.
“If the blinds are $500-$1,000, that’s a thousand big blinds,” said Hellmuth, referring to his anticipated seven-figure buy-ins. “I’ve lost a thousand big blinds before in a session, but it’s rare.”
Hellmuth figures that his conservative style will keep him from needing to re-dip.
“A million the way I play poker is a lot more than a million the way other people play poker.”
For better or worse, he will also have no trouble finding games in which to splash around his dough.
“If this sounds egotistical, I apologize,” said Hellmuth. “But, for whatever reason, it seems like everybody on the planet wants to play poker with me.”
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of six books including Advantage Players, and has worked for publications that include Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on technology, gambling, and business — with a particular interest in spots where all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is currently in development as a feature film.
- Photos by PokerGO and Card Player
