Hellmuth Denied 12th WSOP Bracelet For Third Time!

World Series of Poker / Matthew Pitt / 07 July 2011 / Leave a Comment

Brian Rast poses with his new bracelet (Photo Credit: WSOP.com)

Despite having just won $1,063,034 just hours ago, Phil Hellmuth will probably be the unhappiest man in Las Vegas, this despite the amount of money he won being his first-ever seven-figure score. This is because Hellmuth, the self-proclaimed "Poker Brat," has just finished second in a 2011 World Series of Poker event for the third time, denying him his elusive 12th bracelet.

Each of Hellmuth's 11-WSOP bracelets have from Hold'em tournaments, leading many of his fellow pros and a large section of the poker community to mock Hellmuth and label him a one-trick pony, despite him having a number of top five finishes in non-Hold'em events. There are also many people who believe the modern game of poker has passed Hellmuth by but anyone who has thought like that in the past needs a complete rethink after his performances at this year's WSOP.

He came agonisingly close to winning his 12th bracelet in Event #16, the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw World Championship tournament but ultimately fell just short and finishing second to John Juanda. He then gave himself another crack at the whip when he found himself heads up against Eric Rodawig in Event #33, the $10,00 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Low Event, but again he lost in the one-on-one battle and added yet another second place finish to his already extremely impressive résumé.

After these superb performances from Hellmuth it was no surprise the eyes of the poker world were fixated onto him once again as he found himself on the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship, the tournament that all of the pros dream of winning. Throughout the previous four days of play, 128 of the world's best poker players battled it out across eight different poker disciplines and during this time they were whittled down to just nine players. The plan was to play down until the final table of eight was reached but Day 4 ran though until 0500 and the players and tournament staff decided to call it a night. This meant that Day 5 started with an unofficial final table of nine but once Jason Lester had busted out during a Fixed Limit Hold'em round, the actual final table was reached and all play was switched to purely No Limit Hold'em.

Hellmuth started fifth in chips gradually it looked more and more likely he was going to make it heads up in his third WSOP event of the year. Ben Lamb was the first player eliminated and he was followed to the rail around an hour later by Scott Seiver. Seven became six with the elimination of George Lind before Matt Glantz finally lost all of his chips to be claim fifth spot. Owais Ahmed will go down in the history books as the fourth place finisher, whilst Minh Ly came third, despite holding a large chip lead at one point.

Ly's exit left Hellmuth to take a 10,015,000 to 9,185,000 lead over Brian Rast into the heads up stage of the match. It looked like it was going to be an extremely one-sided affair as Hellmuth picked up pot after pot to open what seemed like an unassailable lead of more than eight-to-one but in big bet games things can turn around quite dramatically as Rast was about to show.

Hand #210 of the final table was the turning point as it saw Rast fade a flush draw to double up to 5,260,000 chips. Just three hands later and he was back level pegging with Hellmuth after he again faded a flush draw, this time holding Ks7d against Tc8c with the money going in on a Jc-4d-Kc flop. Then amazingly, on hand #217 Hellmuth missed his third consecutive flush draw when and was eliminated in second place, a common occurrence at this year's series. The final hand saw Hellmuth raise to 400,000 on the button with 8d2s and Rast flat call with his KcQc. The flop came down Jd-9d-Ts and Rast lead out with his flopped nut straight. Hellmuth paused for a short while before announcing he was all in but he was going to need help as Rast said, "I'm sorry Phil, I have the nuts. I call," before showing Hellmuth the bad news, though the flush draw did hold more than 36% equity. This was reduced to 20% with the arrival of the 5h on the turn and when the 8s landed on the river Hellmuth had gone from Hero to zero in just seven hands. Unbelievable. Almost as unbelievable is the fact that the $1,063,034 Hellmuth was awarded as his consolation prize is the largest of his career so far and his only score of seven-figures, this despite having lifetime winnings of more than $13,000,000.

This victory is Rast's second in a WSOP event, having won a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament earlier in the series. His win means that for the past 12 years there have been at least one double bracelet winner at the WSOP, though it was looking increasingly unlikely this year as the number of events still to be completed stands at just two!

Final table payouts

1st: Brian Rast: $1,720,238
2nd: Phil Hellmuth: $1,063,034
3rd: Minh Ly: $665,763
4th: Owais Ahmed: $482,085
5th: Matt Glantz: $376,750
6th: George Lind: $300,441
7th: Scott Seiver: $243,978
8th: Ben Lamb: $201,338

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