Phil Hellmuth: A (Long) Shot At Winning 12th WSOP Bracelet Today
Last night while our super-sized egos partied it up at Jet and took turns behind the curtain sniffing the gak off a couple of former pageant girls' backsides, Phil Hellmuth's gargantuan-sized ego stopped by to inform us that the 11-time bracelet winner had made his 39th final table, sort of, and is in position to capture his 12th bracelet, sort of.
The reality is that although Hellmuth and his ego will be seated at the ESPN-televised table today, they are still one player away from an official final table of nine players. Turns out that when play had gotten down to 10 last night, officials stopped the event to ensure that Hellmuth, whose stack was dwindling down to about 13 times the big blind, would be there in front of the ESPN cameras on the final day.
"This is because they want me on TV," said Hellmuth, reported PokerListings.com.
Yes, this isn't a poker tournament folks. It's good TV and Hellmuth, his ego and antics boost TV ratings, which in turn helps boost his ego and antics, which in turn boost . . . well, you get the point.
Hellmuth has his work cut out for him today though if he is to complete his WSOP records trifecta of most bracelets (he owns with 11), most cashes (his with 60) and most final tables (he hopes to tie TJ Cloutier today with 39). Stacked at 213,000 in chips, Hellmuth sits down barely in 9th position (10th place, Daniel Corbin, has 210,000) and blinds are running big at 8,000/16,000 with 3,000 antes. Arguably the most skillful tournament hold'em player in poker history, Hellmuth must now first rely on luck to lift him up from his chip deficit to reach numbers 39 and 12. If karma exists as some sort of measure against self-pride (and we personally hope it doesn't), expect to see Hellmuth flame out early today when his blig blind is attacked and he has a hand, likely the best.
With the chip lead going into today is last year's Main Event 19th place finisher, Dustin Holmes, who's stacked at 1,076,000. Beth Shak, a woman (seen to Phil's right in pic), is stacked in 2nd place with 740,000, and Tiltboy Perry Friedman is 4th with 723,000.
Stay tuned here for updates on Phil Hellmuth's quest for a 39th final table appearance and 12th WSOP bracelet as well as links to some wonderfully hot girl named Sarita Stella.
I guess this is a bit of a cheat, don't you think? Phil with 213K at a five handed table would have less chance to pick up a hand and make the 'real' final table of 9, right? I can't believe this favoritism is going un-noticed. Where's Annie Duke to bitch about equality when you need her, huh?
Posted by: Kajagugu | June 19, 2007 at 01:27 PM