After a few disappointments where being at a WSOP final table has
not resulted in a winner's bracelet, this week Phil Hellmuth joined
poker greats Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan as the holder of 10 World
Series of Poker winner's bracelets.
It's a milestone that represents hours of play, fighting through starting
fields of thousands in many events and its achievement earns the respect
of poker players everywhere.
The big event for Hellmuth was the $1000 (with rebuys) No-Limit Hold
'Em event, which attracted a starting field of 734 players who competed
over two days to reach a final table that included formidable professional
talent like Ralph Perry, Terris Preston, the irrepressible TonyG,
circuit champ Joe Spadavecchia, Elio Cabrera, David Plastikl, Daryn
Firicano, top Finnish player Juha Helppi and of course Hellmuth.
First to go was TonyG, who had entered the game with a low chip count.
After some minor hassles over break times and a little unpleasantness
between Perry and Hellmuth over card display the game settled down
until hand 37 when Hellmuth gave Perry his marching orders in slot
number eight.
A mere six hands later, Hellmuth nailed David Plastik in seventh place,
followed not long after by Cabrera, who overreacted by throwing his
chair back. As he marched away from the table, Hellmuth showed sportsmanship
by taking the director's microphone and praising Cabrera, saying:
"I want everyone to know that Elio completely outplayed
me on that hand. You deserved that one much more than I did. I got
lucky."
Hand 57 Spadavecchia took on Terris Preston and bested him, sending
him away in position number five. A further seventy eight hard fought,
grinding hands followed before the next departure, which was Spadavecchia
in fourth place. By now Hellmuth held a significant chip lead of 1.2
million against Helppi's 780 000 and Firicano's 500 000. The threesome
seemed galvanized into action at this point and some hectic cards
and bets flew, resulting in the lead changing to Helppi but only just
- around 100 000 more chips than the other two feisty players.
With the blinds moved up to 15K/30K and a 5K ante, Helppi went after
Firicano and after some skilful play on both sides Firicano was out
in third place.
The heads up between Helppi and Hellmuth was good to go, with the
former holding a significant lead of 800 000 chips over Hellmuth,
still in there fighting for that tenth WSOP bracelet. By hand 203,
the two were still slugging it out, with Hellmuth reducing the Helppi
chip count until the players were almost even. Another thirty one
hands of action followed, rising in intensity over the last five as
Hellmuth took the lead.
The end came as the two got all the chips to the center of the table.
Helppi's A-9 paled in comparison to Hellmuth's A-J and another blank
board gave the championship to Phil Hellmuth to loud cheers from the
crowd as the realization dawned that Hellmuth had not only won $631
863, but had joined the exclusive club of WSOP 10 bracelet holders.
Helppi had to be content with a paycheck of $331 441 and the knowledge
that he had given a great poker player a serious run for his money.
A delighted Hellmuth ran around the table catching high fives from
the crowded spectator stands and relatives, and summed up his evening
by exulting: "I said I would give a million dollars to
win another one of these and now it has happened."