Bill Clinton, Special Olympics, Phelps, Starkey Foundation, FOX Big game

After the WSOP ended, I flew home with my wife and just chilled the heck out!  I watched way too many TV shows, getting caught up on "The Closer," "Flash Forward," "NCIS" reruns, "White Collar," "Big Game," and "Poker after Dark."  I chilled out for 8 days, and then I flew to Lincoln, Nebraska to watch my sister Ann Hellmuth (her nickname is "Yo MTV Raps!") compete in swimming in the National Games for Special Olympics.  Ann won four gold medals!  My sleeping schedule went haywire while I was in Lincoln because I had to get up to watch a race at 9:00 am, ouch!  I am so proud of my sister Ann, and now she has a shot to go to the International Special Olympics in Athens, Greece, but whether she goes or not, she has been to the International S.O. games before, in both the Summer Olympics (swimming), and the Winter Olympics (speed skating).  In fact, she has already won Gold Medals at both!  Here is link to pic of Ann with her four gold medals: http://www.mobypicture.com/user/phil_hellmuth/view/7072531

Ann has been pestering me for months to get a Michael Phelps autograph, and last week Phelps signed a couple of USA swimming caps for Ann and I, sweet!  Phelps also kept me in constant motion as we played poker (we both won), played golf at the Legendary "Shadow Creek" golf course (Phelps won), and hit the clubs ("XS" and "Blush") for two straight days.  I joked with Phelps; and his friends JG (Jeff Gross), TP and Mclean Karr that I was "Partying with the kids."  By the way, it is not easy to keep up with the kids!  But I had a great time, and I was truly impressed with Phelps and the company that he keeps.  Everyone Phelps hangs out with--including a couple of 42 year oldsis a great guy.  Phelps best friend JG really is a prince of a guy!  FYI - JG made his first WSOP final table this summer.

OK, let's go back to July.  After I finished rooting my sister Ann on in Special Olympics, I headed to Minneapolis Saturday July 24 to attend the Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala.  I cannot tell you in words how impressed I am with the Starkey Foundation!  First off, their Gala is the second biggest outside of New York and LA. and attendees included Bill Clinton, Muhammad Ali, Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood, Steve Martin (and the Steep Canyon Rangers), the "Doobie Brothers," Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne, Magic Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, Nick Lachey, Norm Crosby, Vannessa Minnillo, Lou Ferrigno, Adrian Peterson, "Franki Valley and the Four Seasons," the Canadian Tenors, and Verne Troyer.  Clinton and Ali, wowser!  Many of the celebs in attendance are going on "Hearing missions" to Africa, where for a few days they fit kids with hearing aids in a situation where that kid has never even heard his own voice before!  Watching these videos, of children of all ages, hearing their voice for the very first time, puts a person near tears!  To donate money to this worthy cause, see the videos of children hearing for the first time, and learn more about the gala and the celebs at the gala, hit this link: http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/index.php

Saturday night my wife and I attended the private VIP party at Bill and Tani Austins house (the Austins are behind the Starkey Foundation), where I ran into Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress.  Childress reminded me that I spoke to the University of Wisconsin football team in 1998 the night before they played Minnesota (UW wonwe had Ron Dayne back then), when Childress was an assistant coach at UW.  Childress then asked me to speak to the Vikings before a game sometime this season, which sounds like fun!  Of course, I am a Packer fan, but I am also a huge Brett Favre fan!  Thus I would gladly speak to the Vikings, except before the play the Packers. Guard Steve Hutchinson seemed like a great guy, and I had fun hanging with the Vikes.  My wife and I also really enjoyed meeting Michael Irvin (I am fan!) and Gabriel Saporta (Gabe) from "Cobra Starship" (they have the hit "Good Girls Go Bad").  Gabe also plays a lot of poker in the private clubs in Manhattan: no wonder he is so successful!

Sunday night my wife did the black tie "Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala" and they raised $7 million in one night!  We sat at a table of honor; we sat right next to astronaut Charlie Duke and his story was amazing!  Duke described what it was like to see the planet earth from space for the first timehis story took my wife's and my breath away. Duke mentioned that they take off flying east from Cape Canaveral for two reasons: first, because if they crash, then there is no land mass below: second, because then the shuttle is already moving at 2100 MPH due to the rotation of the earth.  The table next to us (the real table of honor!) included Muhammad Ali, Bill Clinton, Garth Brooks and wife Trisha Yearwood, Steve Martin (my wife and I hit it off with his wife), and Bill and Tani Austin.  Here is a link to a pic of Clinton and I from that night re my twitter account: http://www.mobypicture.com/user/phil_hellmuth/view/7175804
Clinton spoke for 45 minutes and he is the best public speaker I have ever seen, by far!  He keeps you glued to your chair; Democrat or Republican, you have to love Bill Clinton!

At the after party I hung out with Adrian Peterson, Roy Williams, and Larry Fitzgerald.  I was impressed with these three charitable and humble young men (and Adrian has a killer, "Almost cry in pain" handshake!).  I agreed to host a charity poker tournament for Starkey Foundation with Adrian as my co-host (By the way, I now have emceed poker tournaments that have raised $10 million!!).  Adrian, like a lot of other young athletes (Lebron James, Michael Phelps, Andy Roddick) is a pretty talented Texas Hold'em player.  The Starkey Hearing Foundation Charity Poker Tournament hosted by Phil Hellmuth and Adrian Peterson will be held Feb 19 at the "Aria Hotel" in Vegas.

Monday night my wife and I hung out in Minneapolis with her niece Amy, her husband Scott and their cute baby Nora.  It is nice to be with family, and Scott and Amy are class acts!  I flew home Tuesday and chilled for another week (too much television!).
On August 12th my wife and I were invited to Bill Clinton's charity event in Lexington, Kentucky.  We would spend part of the day at the Lexington Hearing Center hearing center with Bill Clinton and Bill Austin, and then head off to Clinton's charity event, which was paid for by Austin.  My wife and I were honored to sit right next to Bill and Tani Austin at the Gala dinner!  Here is a link to a pic of Clinton and I as I show him my beer can: http://www.mobypicture.com/user/phil_hellmuth/view/7231283 Many of you know that I was on 12 million beer cans for "Milwaukee's Best" in the summer of 2008; image and likeness, name, and one of my lines ("I can dodge Bullets baby" and "If it weren't for luck I'd win em all").

On Saturday August 14th I flew to Vegas (and my wife flew to Wisconsin) to film three different week long episodes of "The Big game" for FOX.  I filmed Sunday, Weds and Friday.  More on this in my next BLOG.

Meanwhile, On September 11th and 12th I will be hosting a $1 million free roll poker tournament for MGM Resorts International VIP's at the amazing Aria Hotel and Casino.  The VIP's will have a chance to win a free $1 million in cash!  I will emcee the event, and provide free signed books ("Deal Me In") for all participants.  Then I fly to London for the WSOPE (World Series of Poker Europe) for a few weeks.  Then it is off to San Antonio to emcee Eva and Tony Parker's charity poker tournament on October 2nd, open to the public, here is a link: http://www.evasheroes.org/events_casinonight_2010.asp
Then I emcee a poker tournament in Chicago on October 6 for "Teaching Tolerance" (open to the public, but expensive buy in!!) and finally I host a charity poker tournament for CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) October 21st in Manhattan at the Mandarin Oriental, where I have asked Steve Martin, Jay Z, Beyonce, Amy Tan, Bobby Flay, Gabe Saporta, New York Knick Ronny Turiaf, and a bunch of other celebs to attend, and this event is also open to the public: http://giving.chop.edu/site/PageServer?pagename=all_PokerHomepage 

Please come join me at any of these worthy charity poker tournaments!!

Learn more about Phil at www.PhilHellmuth.com and visit his web store at www.PokerBrat.com