November Nine Player Focus: Dennis Phillips

When explaining the reasons for delaying the Main Event final table until November, WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said: “Now fans will ask 'who will win' our coveted championship bracelet and millions of dollars instead of 'Who won? The excitement and interest that will surround our final nine players will be unprecedented." But it seems Dennis Phillips is the antipathy of the ‘mini-celebrity’ Pollack was envisioning.

Hailing from St Louis, Missouri, Phillips is an account manager for a commercial trucking company who only took up poker as a hobby four years ago. Now, he is a poker celebrity after finishing 3rd in the most high-profile final table in poker history. 

Though he was a relative unknown in Vegas circles, Phillips was a very consistent casher in the regular St. Louis tournaments. He qualified for the big dance via a $200 satellite at his local Harrah’s casino, where he defeated 2006 ME Final Tablist Dan Nassif heads-up to win his seat. He had just a couple of major tournament cashes to his name, both in WSOP Circuit events in nearby Robinsonville (a 9th for $2,386 and a 7th for $2,192 within two days in September 2007).

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Remarkably, the Main Event is the only tournament the 53 year-old
played at the world series and he has carefully managed to avoid the limelight; until now. Unlike almost every other player who went deep in the tournament, he resisted several lucrative sponsorship deals, saying he “just disliked the terms of agreement.” Full Tilt offered him a considerable sum to wear their cap backwards on the 10-man bubble table, but Phillips rejected their overtures in favour of his traditional red St. Louis Cardinals hat which is plastered with signatures of famous players. He also insisted on wearing the t-shirts of the company he works for (Broadway Truck Centers); “Those are my friends; I'm not going to do that to them”, he said. (He did eventually allow PokerStars to put a patch on the shirts and on the side of his lucky red cap).

As the media converged around him after the ‘November Nine’ had been decided, he told bewildered reporters that he wouldn’t retire on his winnings and would be back in work by Thursday! It might not be as easy as that, though, and he is now a local celebrity in his local town of Alton (His face is already plastered over the local newspaper, St. Louis Today).

Phillips is so modest about his poker achievements that he only told friends he had qualified for the Main Event at a party several weeks later and only after several drinks. If he keeps playing the way he has been, he could soon find the glare of the media spotlight a more permanent fixture.