Phil Hellmuth Quotes

I like to play cards. I'm not very good, because I don't want to calculate, I just play by instinct. But I've learned a lot of business philosophy by playing poker.

If you read people great then you can become a great No Limit Hold 'Em player.

I wonder why I keep playing such intelligent people?

Better than the strength of men and horses is our wisdom.

Pitchers are smart. They know they are much better off if they mix things up and keep you off-balance.

Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That's why they look alike.

In any match, there are few critical moments where there's no second best decision. The rest of the moves are intuitive.

I like to study the question or the problem or the opportunity in hand, work with the team to come with the right answer, make a decision, and act upon it. Some people have said that, actually, today they pretty much like their bankers dull.

The World Series of Poker was becoming popular, and there were a lot of really bad poker players out there. The misperception was that I was really good, but I just ground it out. It was a good way to make money for Box.

I think that I have very few personal gifts to bring to real politics.

There is no method but to be very intelligent.

Some people are a natural administrator. They actually enjoy doing it. I find it a chore. I'm not a details person. I go for the big sweep.

Poker is a game where you don't have to have the best hand to win. Poker is really reading other people and reading human emotion, which certainly comes into play in business.

It's a great battle, and it really is a battle, and there are people from all walks of life, you know, never judge anybody at the table: A man can be the greatest poker player and he might know all the numbers, but he might get beaten by a really savvy kid who works in a grocery store; and that's what's so great about this game.

I basically have paid for a piano and a flat-screen television completely with my poker earnings. I'm pretty good at it.

My IQ for the game is very high. I think that will help me out a lot.

As naturally athletic as I'm gifted to be, where certain things came easily, I always rely on my brain first.

Look, most players can't stand to be outplayed by an opponent's bluff. Quite honestly, though, it doesn't bother me that much.

What gets lost is that half of poker is reading people. When you're reading well and you're making counterintuitive plays, a strictly math player will get scared and start making fewer moves, and then the person is even easier to read.

I'm not as athletic as some guys, so I have to counter that with a tremendous brain that thinks the game.

I try to read the game as well as I can.

The way you have to think in chess is good for everyday thinking, really, especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.

I was always smaller and slower than everybody else, so I had to figure out other ways to be successful. Some people can survive on their athleticism; I had to survive on my brain.

Poker is about understanding human behavior and managing emotions - yours and the other guy's. That's huge in poker, and it's huge in business.

I have the natural ability to pick things up a lot faster than I think most people would.