Juanda Takes 5th WSOP Bracelet, Denies Hellmuth His 12th

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 13 June 2011 / Leave a Comment

Heads-Up at Event No. 16 (Photo credit: PokerNews / WSOP.com)

"Strange thing," tweeted 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth a little after 1 a.m. Sunday morning. "I finished in 2nd place & Won $270,000, but I feel c[o]mplet[e]ly awful + i am unconsolable..." Hellmuth was referring, of course, to his having come just shy of earning No. 12 on Saturday night, finishing runner-up to John Juanda in Event No. 16, the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Lowball Draw (No-Limit) Championship.

Juanda's triumph marked his fifth WSOP bracelet (including his 2008 WSOPE Main Event victory). It was a remarkable performance for Juanda, who began Day 3 dead last in chips out of the nine players remaining. Not only did he battle back to find himself in third place once they reached the final seven-handed table, but he then overcame a nearly 3-to-1 chip deficit to start heads-up play to defeat Hellmuth.

It was a star-studded finale, with all seven of the players who made that final table having won at least one WSOP bracelet before -- very likely the only time all summer we'll be able to say that about a WSOP final table! And still more bracelet holders were among those just missing the final seven, including Greg Raymer (9th), Johnny Chan (12th), and Brandon Cantu (13th).

After Raymer went out early on Day 3, the remaining eight battled for a couple of hours before Joe Cassidy was eliminated in fairly agonizing fashion. Before the draw, Cassidy had raised from UTG and gotten a couple of callers, then Hellmuth three-bet from from BB. Cassidy pushed all in, the others got out, and Hellmuth very quickly called, adding that he was standing pat.

Cassidy went deep into the tank for several minutes, then finally decided to part with one of his cards. When Hellmuth tabled his hand -- 10-9-7-6-5 -- Cassidy was the one looking inconsolable. As he explained to the table, he'd been dealt a 9 and had broken it, not believing his hand was best. He'd kept 8-7-5-2, and unfortunately drew another 7 to hit the rail in eighth.

Richard Ashby next stood pat with a 10-9-5-4-2 to knock out Hasan Habib in seventh after the latter drew a deuce to go with his 8-6-4-2. Then David "Bakes" Baker -- winner of this same event last year -- was knocked out by Hellmuth. All in before the draw versus both Hellmuth and Steve Sung, Baker and Sung each took one card while the Poker Brat took two. Hellmuth then bet, causing Sung to fold. Hellmuth had made a 10 while Baker was drawing to a 9, but Bakes picked up an ace and was out in sixth.

As the blinds rose, the next three eliminations came quickly. First Hellmuth knocked out Nick Schulman in fifth, staying pat with a jack while Schulman drew to an 8 and paired up. Next Juanda eliminated Sung in fourth, this time Sung staying pat with a jack while Juanda successfully drew one to make a 10. Then, just after the dinner break, Hellmuth sent British player Richard Ashby out in third. In Ashby's final hand, he was drawing one while holding Q-10-4-3 while Hellmuth discarded one and kept 8-6-3-2, and when Hellmuth showed he'd picked up a ten, Ashby was drawing dead.

With 15 WSOP bracelets between them, Juanda and Hellmuth entered their battle as the two most decorated players ever to play heads-up in a WSOP event.

Heads-up play lasted nearly three hours. Juanda drew even with Hellmuth early, the pair remained even for a while, then Juanda pushed out ahead before finally finishing off Hellmuth. In the final hand, Hellmuth was all in and standing pat with a Q while Juanda drew to a J-6-3-2. He picked up an eight, and the bracelet was his.

Juanda earned a little over $367K for his win, while Hellmuth actually scored just under $227K for his finish (not quite the $270K he tweeted).

"Congrats 2 the great @luckboxjuanda," added Hellmuth to his tweet, including Juanda's mostly-ironic Twitter handle. Luck helped Juanda, certainly, but fourth-place finishes the last two years in this same event well demonstrates his 2-7 NL draw skills.

And not that he needed such proof, but Hellmuth's deep finish in Event No. 16 should also help show he's more than just a hold'em player, despite the fact that all 11 of his bracelets have come in HE games. Saturday marked Hellmuth's 16th non-hold'em final table at the World Series, and the third time he's finished second in a non-HE WSOP event. Hellmuth previously took runner-up in both the 2001 $5,000 Omaha/8 and the 1993 $5,000 2-7 NL Draw.

2011 WSOP Event No. 16, final table payouts
1st: John Juanda ($367,170)
2nd: Phil Hellmuth ($226,907)
3rd: Richard Ashby ($143,833)
4th: Steve Sung ($97,416)
5th: Nick Schulman ($69,216)
6th: David "Bakes" Baker ($51,485)
7th: Hasan Habib ($40,020)

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