Hellmuth certainly keeps himself busy with a number of side projects, but he recently took the time to speak with us about what it's like living the life of a poker superstar.

You began playing poker professionally shortly after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. What made you decide to take up cards as a profession, and how tough was it for you to make it early on?
Well, I started playing in games around the University of Wisconsin campus and the next thing I knew, I had $20,000 in the bank. And this is like 1986. I mean, back then if you made 30 thousand a year, that was pretty good, right? Here I had 20 thousand in cash in the bank and my loans were paid off. Back then, in Vegas you could win $10,000 to $20,000 pretty easily in a day. The World Series of Poker in '89 when I won it was $750,000 for first. I told myself, "Where else can I make this kind of money?" So I started playing poker professionally. I never had a job. I had a job when I was in college, but I never had to work.

Was it something you always wanted to do?
I don't even think that people knew playing poker professionally was possible back then. Now, you fast forward to this climate and poker is on television every day. But back in like 1995, most people didn't even know you could be a professional poker player.

You won your first World Series of Poker title at the age of 24 and you have won a total of nine bracelets since then. With so many people entering the tournament every year, what do you think your chances are of winning more WSOP titles in the future?
Well, I'll probably win at least ten more. They are going to have 40 World Series of Poker events this year. So, there is 39 plus the main event - the main event is the bracelet I won in '89 when I was 24 and I’ve won eight since then. I know with 40 events, I'll probably play in 20 of them. I have a talent to play poker and win poker tournaments. And Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan both won one last year, so there's no reason why I can’t win one this year. They both went to bracelet number 10, I'm still on nine.

Do you think you'll ever win the main event again?
I believe I'm going to win the main event at least one more time in my life. A lot of people out there want to spout the math. There's five or six thousand players - there will never be less than six thousand players in the main event for the next 30 years, which I believe is the case. It's just going to be a huge, huge field. But so what? I have to believe I'm going to win it. I don't care about the math. I'm someone who thinks big and does big. I wanted to write a best-selling book and I did it. I wanted to win the World Series of Poker and I did it. I wanted to make a lot of money in business and I've done it. I think that you have to believe. If you don't believe, then don't play.

You touched on this a little bit, but I wanted to follow up - do you think poker will continue to grow in popularity or do you think this is its 15 minutes of fame, and the bubble will burst at some point?
I really think poker is going to get bigger. It's a new philosophy that I have just recently acquired. Seeing the number of high school and college age kids and younger that just love poker and understanding that these kids, a lot of them have to give up on their dreams of being a great athlete early. How many kids can be a great basketball player? How many kids can be a great football player?

Well, in poker - all races, nationalities, sizes, it doesn't matter what you do, who you are - male, female - you can become a great poker player. I think these kids understand it. There's a lot of money in it, too. I think because you have so many young people striving to be great - and you know what, they don't have to give up early, they see that someone like Chris Moneymaker can win it or Greg Raymer or Robert Varkonyi. I mean, look at Steve Dannenmann, he was the fourth best player in his game, he finished second in the World Series, won $4.5 million. So people know it's possible. So I think poker is going to continue to get hot.

Obviously, poker has been widely glamorized over the last couple years on television as its popularity continues to grow. What is the life of a poker professional really like? Talk a little bit about the ups and downs of a full-time poker player.
You're talking about the life for everyone else or the life for me? The life for me has been pretty amazing. I've had plenty of downs, but I never let the downs bring me down. I never got into alcohol. I mean, sure I'll go to the VIP club and drink Don Perignon Rose and spend $4,000 on my bar bill. But I've never become close to an alcoholic. I'm not a drug guy. I'm not a big gambling guy. I'm not off playing the other games. I have been playing some high limit slot machines. But I think I'm getting comped enough to cover whatever I've lost at that. I'm not really a heavy addicted type of person. So, the downs for me, I could always look beyond that.

If I was having a down week or a down month, I'd look to the future and I'd say, "You know what? In a month I'm going to be rich." So I always bought in and looked toward the future. The downs didn't effect me as much. And I like being on stage, I like the pressure. So that's just me. And life's been pretty nice for me. Dealing with the downs has taught me to become a better person and dealing with the downs has given me a lot of wisdom.

I think some of your readers, if they are going to do this for a living, they're going to start drinking too much or they are going to get into drugs or they're going to get into gambling and it's not necessarily going to be as easy a life for them as it was for me. Maybe they don't like playing under pressure. Maybe it's going to age them quickly.

But for me, I feel terrific. I'm young, I'm taking care of myself. I'm working out. I've got a couple of kids and a wife. Life's a lot of fun. Some of the most famous athletes in the world know me. I give speeches and do events at $50,000 a night. I'm doing commercials. We shot a commercial for the Super Bowl for Diet Pepsi. Life's been pretty good for me. My books are selling like hot cakes. My DVDs are flying off the shelves. My cell phone game with a company called Summus has 500,000 downloads. I've been very fortunate. And at the top of my list is my wife and kids and health. I have a list that I look at every morning and the first thing I say is, "Thank God for my health." I have it up on my mirror and the first thing I say is "Rejoice evermore" which is a quote from John Adams that I like. I'm not particularly religious, but I like that. Rejoice evermore and be thankful everyday.