Phil Hellmuth continues to prove that poker is a game of skill with an element of chance, not the other way around. In fact, when Hellmuth plays at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), it seems that it takes bad luck for him NOT to make a deep run in a tournament. Already the most decorated player in WSOP history, he put the field even further back in his rearview mirror Monday when he won his 14th gold bracelet, taking the title in the $10,000 Razz Championship.
Superlatives and records abound for Phil Hellmuth. He had already won the most bracelets in World Series of Poker history; he now has four more than his closest competition. Of those three players with ten – Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, and Doyle Brunson – only Ivey realistically has any chance to close that gap. Hellmuth has 109 lifetime cashes at the WSOP, outdistancing Erik Seidel by 20.
His total WSOP winnings are now $12,783,905, which only puts him in fourth place (ONLY), but the three players ahead of him all won or finished second in the Big One for One Drop, single victories that make up the bulk of their WSOP earnings.
Interestingly, this is only Hellmuth’s second bracelet in a non-Hold’em event. His first eleven were all in Hold’em tournaments, a statistic that had drawn some criticism from poker fans (I’ll take that criticism any day of the week and twice on Sunday, thank you very much), but he finally broke through in a different discipline in 2012, winning the $2,500 Razz event.
About halfway through the final table, it looked like Hellmuth was going to run away with the crown, as he owned (or, in poker, rented) half the chips with just five players remaining, but he actually went into heads-up play against Mike Gorodinsky, a former bracelet winner himself, well behind, 1,966,000 to 1,100,000. The blinds were high, though (50,000/100,000), and it didn’t take long for Hellmuth to pull slightly ahead and then exactly reverse the original heads-up starting stacks. Gorodinsky fought back, though, and re-took the lead twice before Hellmuth took over for good.
Gorodinsky, despite seeing his stack dwindle to less than one big blind, never gave up, doubling up a couple times to give himself a chance, but his luck couldn’t hold out forever. On fourth street, with Gorodinsky holding (T-2)/5-4 and Hellmuth with (7-6)/4-K, Gorodinsky ended up getting his chips all-in. He was dealt T-Q face-up while Hellmuth received T-2. When Hellmuth turned over his final down card to show an Ace, he had the hand locked up and there was no need to even see what Gorodinsky had. With that pair of Tens killing his low, there was no way that Gorodinsky could beat Hellmuth’s A-2-4-6-7.
Phil Hellmuth won his record-extending 14th bracelet and $271,105. Mike Gorodinsky had to be consoled with $167,517.
2015 World Series of Poker Event #17: $10,000 Razz Championship – Final Table Results
1. Phil Hellmuth – $271,105
2. Mike Gorodinsky – $167,517
3. Adam Owen – $104,914
4. Mike Leah – $75,964
5. Thomas Keller – $59,370
6. Jyri Merivirta – $47,344
7. Stephen Chidwick – $38,447
8. Brandon Shack-Harris – $31,727
* Tournament updates and info courtesy WSOP.com.