Home / Poker News December 2011 / The Best Stories of 2011 – Phil Hellmuth’s Back in Business
The Best Stories of 2011 – Phil Hellmuth’s Back in Business
Posted by: Randy Williams - Mon, 2011-12-26 11:36
For years, Phil Hellmuth, the
WSOP bracelet record holder, the Poker Brat and one of the top tournament players in the world – whether you like him or not - has been in a rut that looked a lot like a curse. His enemies were rejoicing and every time he came close to knocking the monkey off his back, he failed, pouring yet more gas on the haters’ fire.
In 2011 he redeemed himself though. He dropped the gimmicks, the spectacular tournament entries and he began focusing on the game. The results would come hard and fast: the old Brat amassed no less than $1.65 million in tournament earnings during the year. He also bailed the UB ship just before it went under for good and he generally made a whole bunch of proper decisions, earning back the respect of not only his peers but the entire online and live poker community.
Hellmuth still failed to break through for a spectacular win, but he had a number of extreme close calls that were highly impressive indeed.
His first heroic feat came in the $10k NL 2-7 Draw Lowball World Championship event, where he finished 2nd, narrowly missing the top spot. That finish was worth $226.9k. He followed that accomplishment with another 2nd place finish in the $10k 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo World Championship event, taking down another $273.2k.
The Poker Players’ Championship event provided another opportunity for the Brat to shine. He finished second yet again, taking home $1.06 million for his efforts.
He had similar deep runs in three other events: he finished 3rd in the $1.5k EPL Pro-Am event and second in the $200 EPL Limit Holdem Charity Event. The €2.5k Six-Max NL Holdem event saw him finish 7th for a reward of $32.3k.
As far as Hellmuth is concerned though, the bottom line is that he still didn’t get his 12th bracelet, therefore he probably does not feel like a winner at all.
