Home / Poker News June 2011 / 2011 WSOP Grudge Matches – Chan Defeats Hellmuth
2011 WSOP Grudge Matches – Chan Defeats Hellmuth
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2011-06-03 11:49
Thursday saw the debut of the televised Grudge Match series that would definitely go down among the highlights of the
2011 WSOP. The table normally reserved for the heads-up stages of various WSOP events played host to a historic confrontation between Phil Hellmuth the Poker Brat (no longer a UB Poker representative) and Johnny Chan, in the re-enactment of the 1989 Main Event final. Back in 1989, it was Hellmuth who emerged victorious from the match-up, becoming the youngest poker pro to win a WSOP Main Event and denying Chan the performance of securing his 3rd WSOP title in 3 consecutive years.
This time around, things turned out differently, and although nothing can quite give Chan his lost 3rd consecutive bracelet back, at least he managed to exact some sweet revenge even if it did happen 22 years down the line.
Chan managed to build up an early chip lead and he never really looked back. He proceeded to put Hellmuth away, but the Brat didn’t want to just fade away. Four times he put his tournament life onto the line and four times he managed to catch cards that allowed him to stay afloat. It was for that reason that the match between the two lasted a full 40 minutes more than the organizers had planned.
The final hand of the match saw Phil Hellmuth shove all-in with Ks,10c against Chan’s pocket 8s. The board only brought blanks, and with them a measure of vindication for Johnny Chan.
Back in the 80s, it was still possible for skilled poker players to pop up at the final tables of WSOP Main Events repeatedly and even to win repeatedly. Since then, the popularity explosion of online poker and the appearance of online poker rooms like
Full Tilt Poker and
PokerStars, which send thousands of players to the WSOP every year, have pretty much made such feats impossible.
