Phil Hellmuth’s wife is Dr. Katherine “Kathy” Sanborn, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She married the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner on March 31, 1990, and the couple have two sons, Phillip III and Nicholas.
We found no interview with her in poker media, so almost everything public about the marriage comes from Phil himself. Both sons now play the World Series of Poker, after their mother made a conscious effort to steer them away from the game.
That gap leaves celebrity bio sites guessing. They disagree on her age by seven years and repeat stories nobody has sourced. This page carries only what Phil and his sons have said on the record, plus what Stanford publishes about her career.
Below: her work at Stanford, how the couple met, the line Phil called out to her from a Main Event table, the two times the marriage nearly ended, and the sons who took up poker anyway.
Who Is Phil Hellmuth’s Wife, Dr. Katherine Sanborn?
Her Stanford faculty profile says she “specializes in the treatment of psychiatric inpatients”. It lists her interests as residency education, psychotherapy training, administration and developmental psychopathology.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Dr. Katherine Sanborn |
| Known As | Kathy |
| Profession | Psychiatrist |
| Stanford Title | Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences |
| Current Roles | Co-Director, Individual Psychotherapy Clinic (since 2011); Inpatient Medical Director, Psychiatry (since 2015) |
| Medical Degree | University of Wisconsin Medical School, 1993 |
| Residency | Stanford University School of Medicine, 1999 |
| Board Certification | American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 2002 |
| Spouse | Phil Hellmuth (married March 31, 1990) |
| Children | Phillip Hellmuth III and Nicholas Hellmuth |
| Public Record | Stanford faculty profile |
Put simply, the profile covers two things: caring for hospital inpatients and training psychiatrists. Nothing on it touches poker. That sets her apart from a spouse who built her own career in poker broadcasting, and you can read how Amanda Leatherman met Daniel Negreanu for the contrast.
Every family detail below comes from Phil’s own statements or from interviews his sons have given.
Her Stanford Career: Roles, Training & Research
Her medical degree is from Wisconsin. Every step listed after that, from her internship to her current roles, is at Stanford.
- 1993: medical degree, University of Wisconsin Medical School.
- 1995: internship, Stanford University School of Medicine.
- 1999: residency, Stanford University School of Medicine.
- 2002: board certification in psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
- 2011 to present: Co-Director of the Individual Psychotherapy Clinic, Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
- 2015 to present: Inpatient Medical Director, Psychiatry, Stanford.
Dr. Sanborn’s Stanford faculty profile page also lists published research going back to 1999. These are the entries as Stanford shows them.
| Year | Title | Journal |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Salivary cortisol levels in socially phobic adolescent girls | Depression and Anxiety |
| 2001 | Etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of nonepileptic seizures | Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports |
| 2002 | Puberty and the emergence of gender differences in psychopathology | Journal of Adolescent Health |
| 2017 | Verbigeration: An overlooked symptom of a “forgotten syndrome”? | Bipolar Disorders |
| 2022 | EMTALA Violation? Examining Inequity in the Emergency Transfer of Psychiatric Patients | Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (supplement, pages S96 to S97) |
One correction is worth making. Many sites still call her a Clinical Associate Professor. Stanford’s own page says Clinical Professor.
How Phil Hellmuth Met Kathy
Around 1988, Phil wrote down a list of life goals. Speaking on The Jordan Harbinger Show in June 2018, he recalled five of them.
- Win the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
- Buy a nice house.
- Buy a nice car.
- Meet and marry an amazing woman.
- Write a New York Times bestseller.
A write-up published on Phil’s own website words the fourth goal differently: “Meet and marry a wonderful woman, who can abide me.”
The first goal on the list was the WSOP Main Event, and he won it in May 1989 at the age of 24. That win opens our guide to Phil Hellmuth’s bracelet record and net worth.
Kathy arrived almost at once, as he told it in the same interview.
“And then I met my wife after I won the main event in ’89.” – Phil Hellmuth
He went on to say they met two weeks after the win, a detail the episode’s show notes repeat.
They married in March 1990, a date Phil has marked with anniversary posts on Instagram. In the 2018 interview he ticked the goal off out loud: “We’re still together 28 years later. Check.”
He has told the story in writing too. “My wife found that list two years later,” he wrote on his Substack, adding that by 2004 he had “checked off every single item”.
Many biographies say the pair met as students at the University of Wisconsin. Phil’s own telling places the meeting after the 1989 win, and we have gone with his version.
“He Called a Raise With Queen-Ten, Honey”: Kathy on the Rail
Kathy’s best-known poker moment is a single word: honey. During the 2008 WSOP Main Event, Phil lost a pot to Adam Levy and called out to his wife on the rail: “He called a raise with queen-ten, honey!”
ESPN broadcast the exchange. Six years later came a tweet, posted on October 15, 2014.
Have an offer to be on ABC television show “Wife Swap,” but wife won’t do it! Though I’m SURE she would look amazing! #WifeIsAwesome
In both moments Phil brings his wife into his public life. The tweet records her answer to joining him there: no.
What Phil Says About His Wife
“I’m married to someone who’s brilliant,” Phil said in a July 2017 interview.
A year later he told podcast host Jordan Harbinger: “I’m a really good father. I’m a really good husband.”
He made the same point in writing when he launched his Substack.
“I’ve been married to the same amazing woman for 36 years, we’ve got two sons who are both trying their hand at professional poker, and despite being ‘rich and famous’, I’ve never cheated on my wife.” – Phil Hellmuth
In the Harbinger interview he described a day when a dispute over money with another player had left him furious. His answer, as he tells it, was to say to Kathy: “Honey, you know what? We’re looking at this wrong.”
He suggested they “go celebrate our lives”, and the two went out to dinner.
He also recalled a family holiday after a painful Main Event exit, when he caught himself brooding. “You’re with your wife and kids, man,” he remembered telling himself.
The Two Times the Marriage Nearly Ended
Phil has said openly that the marriage came close to ending twice. He wrote about both episodes in his 2017 autobiography, Poker Brat, and discussed them in interviews when it came out.
“My wife almost left me in 2001/2002,” he said in July 2017.
The couple went to therapy, and he has described what that took from both of them.
“I worked hard to fight for her and she worked hard to fight for me. We took the pain of nearly losing each other into therapy to improve ourselves.” – Phil Hellmuth
The second episode ran the other way. “I was ready to leave her two years ago and I wrote about that too,” he said in the same interview. At the book’s launch he put a year on it: 2015.
His own summary of both: “the struggles I had in marriage still meant that I stayed loyal, fought hard and am super happy that I did.”
Phil Hellmuth’s Sons Play Poker Anyway
The Hellmuth home had its own tournament. “We even had a little bracelet that we would engrave the winner’s initials on and then pass to the winner of the next tournament,” Phillip Hellmuth III said in a June 2025 interview.
In the same interview he was asked what he had learned from his mother. “My mom has taught me a lot about commitment and hard work,” he said. “She was always there for me and played a very significant part in my development.”
He added that he tries to think the way she does: “I emulate a lot of her thought process.”
Nicholas hears the comparison from strangers. “People say that I take after my mom,” he said at the 2026 WSOP.
On poker itself, Kathy pulled the other way. “My mom made a very conscious effort to push us away from poker, especially as we turned old enough to start gambling,” he said.
It did not hold. Both sons now play.
- Phillip Hellmuth III: the elder son. He played his first WSOP Main Event in 2025. On October 10, 2025, Phil posted that Phillip was getting married that Sunday, October 12.
- Nicholas Hellmuth: the younger son. He left a job in 2025, took up poker that autumn and entered the $500 Colossus at the 2026 WSOP, aged 23.
On September 15, 2025, Phil announced on X that Nick had decided to turn professional. “My youngest son Nick has decided to become a professional poker player,” he wrote.
Ladies and gentleman; Nick Hellmuth!!
My youngest son Nick has decided to become a professional poker player. He loves the game, he loves learning the game, and he loves connecting w his older bother Phillip around game strategies. He is improving rapidly!
Nick is in Reno w me… pic.twitter.com/Ta6ziavkEf
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) September 15, 2025
At the 2026 WSOP, Nick put his progress in plain terms. “I only started in the fall, so every time I cash is a celebration for me,” he said.
Nicholas said his father is “actually very happy” that both sons are in poker now. By his account, his mother has come round to it as well.
Nicholas has already named his next milestone: to “outright win a tournament”.
| Year | Family Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1988 | Phil writes his life goals list |
| 1989 | Phil wins the WSOP Main Event and meets Kathy soon after |
| March 31, 1990 | Phil and Kathy marry |
| 1993 | Kathy earns her medical degree in Wisconsin |
| 1999 | Kathy completes her Stanford residency |
| 2008 | “He called a raise with queen-ten, honey!” |
| 2011 | Kathy becomes Co-Director of the Individual Psychotherapy Clinic |
| 2014 | Kathy turns down ABC’s Wife Swap |
| 2015 | Kathy becomes Inpatient Medical Director, Psychiatry |
| 2017 | Phil publishes his autobiography, Poker Brat |
| 2025 | Phillip III plays his first WSOP Main Event; Phil announces Nick is turning professional |
| 2026 | Nick plays the WSOP Colossus |
Are Phil Hellmuth & Kathy Sanborn Still Married in 2026?
Yes. Phil writes about the marriage in the present tense on his Substack.
The biography on his official website reads: “Phil lives in California with his wife, Kathy, and their two sons, Phillip III and Nicholas.”
The same page gives his goal in his own words: “I want to be the greatest poker player of all-time. But one who always puts family first.”
Theirs is the longest marriage on our list of the game’s couples, and you can see where the Hellmuths rank among poker couples by earnings.
FAQs
Who is Phil Hellmuth's wife?
Phil Hellmuth’s wife is Dr. Katherine “Kathy” Sanborn, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. They married in 1990 and have two sons, Phillip III and Nicholas.
What does Katherine Sanborn do for a living?
She is a psychiatrist. Her Stanford faculty profile lists her as Clinical Professor, Co-Director of the Individual Psychotherapy Clinic since 2011 and Inpatient Medical Director for Psychiatry since 2015. It says she specialises in treating psychiatric inpatients.
How did Phil Hellmuth meet his wife?
By Phil’s own account, he met Kathy two weeks after winning the 1989 WSOP Main Event. Many biographies say they met as students at the University of Wisconsin, but that is not how he tells it.
When did Phil Hellmuth get married?
Phil and Kathy married on March 31, 1990. Marrying “an amazing woman” was one of the life goals he had written down around 1988.
Does Phil Hellmuth have children?
Yes. Phil and Kathy have two sons, Phillip Hellmuth III and Nicholas Hellmuth. Phil has described Nick as his youngest.
Do Phil Hellmuth's sons play poker?
Both do. Phillip III played his first WSOP Main Event in 2025. Phil announced in September 2025 that Nick had decided to turn professional, and Nick entered the $500 Colossus at the 2026 WSOP.
Are Phil Hellmuth and Kathy Sanborn still married?
Yes. Phil’s own Substack page refers to staying married to “the same amazing woman for 36 years”, and the biography on his website says he lives in California with Kathy and their two sons.
How old is Katherine Sanborn?
We found no confirmation of her age from her, from Phil or from Stanford. Celebrity bio sites give birth years seven years apart and cite no source, so we do not publish one. What is documented: she earned her medical degree in 1993.
Does Katherine Sanborn play poker?
Neither Phil nor his sons have said so on the record, as far as we could find. Phillip III has described a family home tournament with an engraved bracelet, without saying who played in it.
Who are poker's other famous wives?
The best known include Amanda Leatherman, Kaitlin Polk and Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak’s long-term partner. Kaitlin is the least public of the three, as we cover in the Kaitlin Polk story and the Lodge raid.
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