Phil Hellmuth, the notorious Poker Brat, has rubbed many people the wrong way. Now, he certainly didn’t mean to. Oh, who are we kidding, of course, he did. But then again Mr Hellmuth’s temper is no reason to deny him his qualities of a player nor is it a reason to vilify him. Despite his short temper, he remains a gentlemanly chap off the felt.
And so, Phil Hellmuth has managed to win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em, fetching the respectable $485,082 and a 15th bracelet in his career. Hellmuth faced off with Steven Wolansky. He didn’t flinch even though Wolansky had the stack advantage. Mr Hellmuth won a bracelet two years after he earned another one in 2015.
And so, this is a nice turn in events indeed with Mr Hellmuth finally catching the break he has probably wished for a long, long time. If we have to retrace his steps, we will notice that he had a bit of a bad run. He dropped out of the WSOP Main Event, which was definitely one of the least pleasant things that could have happened to him. In another incident, he was caught cussing, which was less than gracious of him to do, too.
The Day of the Crunch
The final day was had 38 players left at the feeling. Mind, the event opened with as many as 452. Phil Hellmuth was among them, naturally. Still, some of the better players started falling out quickly, which definitely surprised bystanders. Anthony Zinno, Davidi Kitai, Liv Boeree all dropped off.
The final table was now shaping up. Ten players were gearing up to progress to the final stages of the tournament when Aliaksei Boika had the opportunity to slash that number down to eight after he had dispatched both Paul Fontan and Eric Hicks with a single hand.
Hicks was rather upset as he had hoped to attend the finals, but the minor $30,881 going his way may have been some form of consolation.
The Noose Tightens
Now the players started playing in earnest. Everyone was hurrying up with their wagers and decisions seemed to take mere seconds. It took all competitors around 25 hands before people started dropping off. Ralph Wong had to go followed by Paul Hoefer.
And it came to Hellmuth and Wolansky. Hellmuth was lagging behind Wolansky quite significantly, leaving him little opportunity to really navigate as he wanted. Still, he seemed to be poised and managed to rally magnificently, pushing his way out of a difficult spot.
Before long, the deal was settled and with Helmuth having found his feet in the game, he also managed to find his way clear to the 15th bracelet in his career.
Phil Hellmuth was in a positive food mood at the end of the event. He was appreciative of the opportunity and spoke highly of Bill Lee who is an angel investor. Mr Hellmut concluded by saying that his life is dominated by poker. Poker and his willingness to spread positivity in the world, in his own words. Well, he’s at least one for two.
