Tag: Phil Hellmuth

Phil Hellmuth wins WSOP Europe Main Event

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There was talk  that the game of poker had passed by Phil Hellmuth, but this year he showed the world that he was not done with the game and the game was still his to lose.  Hellmuth capped his great WSOP performance with a masterful game in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

This win ups his record to 13 WSOP bracelets.  Earlier this year he bagged his only non-holdem bracelet in a $2,500 buyin Razz tournament at the Rio in Las Vegas Nevada.  The “Poker Brat” then traveled to Cannes in France for the annual European version of the World Series of Poker.  After his one million Euros ($1.3 million) win in the main event Phil said “This was the best I have ever played.  I was all in just once.”

Hellmuth defeated Ukranian  Sergii Baranov when Baranov took a stand with Ace-Four.  Phil called with Ace-Ten and the Ukranian got no help.  Before, Phil knocked out Stephane Albertini with a little river magic holding a 77 vs the Frenchman’s JJ.  That magical 7 on the river got it to heads up play where Hellmuth wore down his opponent with selective pressure until Sergii unwisely fought back at the wrong time.

Phil Hellmuth is brash, a bit of a complainer, and a shameless self-promoter but no one can say that he is not one of the best tournament poker players in the world.

Phil Hellmuth bracelets and years:

 

1989 $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship
1992 $5,000 Limit Hold’em
1993 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
1993 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em
1993 $5,000 Limit Hold’em
1997 $3,000 Pot Limit Hold’em
2001 $2,000 No Limit Hold’em
2003 $2,500 Limit Hold’em
2003 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em
2006 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em with rebuys
2007 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
2012 $2,500 Seven-Card Razz

2012 €10,450 No Limit Hold’em Main Event (WSOP Europe)

 

Guillaume Humbert Takes Down WSOPE Event #1; Denies Hellmuth 12th Bracelet

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With Event #1 at the World Series of Poker Europe drawing a ton of interest, one player stood out above all of the other big names.  Phil Hellmuth made it into the final 12 of the event, and looked to be on his way to taking down his 12 WSOP bracelet.  Mixed with Phil there were quite a few other big names in the event as well, as players like Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, and Daniel Negreanu took their shot at the €215,999 first place prize.

It looked like Hellmuth had a realistic shot at taking down his 12th gold bracelet in the No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Event, but he was unable to hold up in the end.  Hellmuth got in some coin flips that didn’t hold up, and also got a bit tilted at some of the players who he was matched up against.  Hellmuth’s efforts were good enough for a 7th place finish, and a nice €24,183 pay day.  This finish will put him close to the current Player of the Year leader Ben Lamb, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Player of the Year race will end up.

The real story of the event came down to Guillaume Humbert, who finished in first place and took home the grand prize of €215,999.  Humbert is actually a part time online poker pro, who used some of his earnings to buy-in to this event, and this was actually his first ever live poker tournament of his career.  He grinded his way through the final 12 players, and got to heads up play against Azusa Maeda.  When heads up play began, Humbert was about 600k in chips behind Maeda, but played aggressively for around an hour to gain a chip lead, and never actually had a hand go to showdown.  Play finally came to an end with Maeda pushing all in with a straight draw and back door flush draw; but he was dominated by a flopped straight of Humbert.  Maeada took home a nice consolation prize of €133,471 for an excellent run; but it was Humbert’s day in the end.

You could assume that this probably won’t be the last that we see of Guillaume Humbert at the World Series of Poker Europe.

2011 WSOP Event 16 Recap

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WSOPEvent 16 of this year’s WSOP has turned into the big story so far. While not much was expected out of the 10k 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No Limit) in the way of stories, this tournament changed those expectations incredibly.

Only 126 players were signed up to play this event, creating a $1.2 million prize pool. However, this tournament is not about overcoming a large field to win a bracelet, but who you have to overcome. Frequently, these tournaments are referred to as a pro’s opportunity to buy a bracelet, but after the field that turned out to play this tournament, that may be a hasty argument.

The final table: Phil Hellmuth, Richard Ashby, John Juanda, Steve Sung, Nick Schulman, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, and Hasan Habib (Joe Cassidy and Greg Raymer busted in 8th and 9th respectively). If you were going to try to “buy a bracelet” in this event, you would have to overcome these men to do so. All of the men at the final table each had a WSOP bracelet.

All the stars seemed to be aligning for Phil Hellmuth, who entered the final table as the chip leader. Hellmuth, who was going for his record 12th World Series of Poker bracelet, was trying to earn his first non-Hold’em bracelet. He kept this momentum up, getting heads-up versus John Juanda with a nearly 3-1 chip lead.

Juanda exactly isn’t a slouch, though. Having 4 WSOP bracelets and finishing 4th in this very event in the past two years, Juanda has been called the best 2-7 Lowball player in the world. He lived up to this title against Hellmuth. In a heads-up match that lasted over 4 hours, Juanda slowly picked at Hellmuth’s stack, quietly and methodically, until he sent the 11-time champion to the rail. Hellmuth, while more than disappointed to not have earned the bracelet, still took home $226k. Juanda earned his 5th bracelet and $367,170 for his win, along with the joy of denying the Poker Brat number 12.