After a few disappointments where being at a WSOP final table has not resulted in a winner’s bracelet, this week Phil “The Professor” Helmuth joined 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 Helmuth 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 Helmuth.
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 Helmuth over card display the game settled down until hand 37 when Helmuth 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, Helmuth 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 Helmuth held a significant chip lead of 1.2 million against Helppi’s 780 000 and Firicano’s 500 000. The threesome seemed galvanised 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 Helmuth was good to go, with the former holding a significant lead of 800 000 chips over Helmuth, still in there fighting for that tenth WSOP bracelet. By hand 203, the two were still slugging it out, with Helmuth 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 Helmuth 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 realisation dawned that Helmuth had not only won $631 863, but had joined the exclusive club of WSOP 10 bracelet holders. Hellpi 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 Helmuth 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.”