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Of all the major storylines going into the 2007 World Series of Poker, none was bigger than the race to eleven. When Phil Hellmuth won his tenth bracelet a year earlier, it put him into a tie for the most won in a career with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan atop the lifetime bracelet list. The question was who would win their eleventh first.
The answer was Hellmuth. No one, not even Brunson or Chan, was terribly surprised, because of his dedication to the event and his ability to rise to this particular occasion. Phil may be the best in the world at beating bad players, and the massive fields of the World Series cater perfectly to his game.
The tiebreaker came in event 15- $1,500 no-limit hold’em. While his colleagues in gold went down early, Hellmuth thrived, emerging from the field of 2628 with the second largest stack heading to the final table. Once there, everything would go his way.
Hellmuth stormed through the final table, dispatching of pros Ut Nguyen, Fabrice Soulier, Scott Clements and eventually Rick Fuller en route to the heads-up portion against dentist Andy Philacheck. Philacheck more or less seemed happy to just to be there; understandable considering he started with the third smallest stack and had a million chips to Phil’s 6.8 million. They didn’t take long to finish it.
Philacheck pushed preflop with Ac-10c and Hellmuth called with As-3h. The flop gave Phil the three he was looking for, coming 9h-4c-3d. the turn Qh and river Jh sealed the deal, eliminating Philacheck and giving Phil the thing he wanted most in the poker world; his eleventh bracelet and sole possession of the most prestigious record in the game
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
