What do you give a man who has 11 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets? How about a 12th? UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth, fresh off an appearance in the music video for Ludacris’ new hit “Sex Room,” sits in 16th on the leaderboard after one day of play in Event #8 of the 2010 WSOP, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Hellmuth owns a stack of 84,700 after Day 1, trailing chip leader Josh “sdouble” Schlein by about 40,000.
Hellmuth tangled with former “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande late in the day on Wednesday. After raised action from Bellande pre-flop, the first three community cards came 9-9-Q. Bellande bet 5,000 and Hellmuth called behind to bring a seven on turn. After some trademark Hellmuth banter, Bellande check-called a bet of just 3,800 and a deuce hit on the river. Both players checked and Bellande flipped up pocket eights. Hellmuth showed Bellande pocket fours, which promptly hit the muck.
Bellande did not scoop his chips quietly. Instead, he gave Hellmuth the following diatribe, according to coverage found on WSOP.com: “Your small bets mean nothing, Phil. All those guys that watch Poker VT are wasting their time. If they want to play perfect poker, they should just put a camera behind me. I couldn’t have played that hand any better.”
After Hellmuth turned the nuts in a separate hand holding 10-8 on a board of 9-3-J-7, Bellande quipped, “Some of us get there and some of us don’t. That is why you have 11 bracelets and I have none.” Hellmuth has 11 WSOP bracelets, the most of any player, and 75 in the money finishes. His total WSOP earnings top $6 million and he defeated Johnny Chan heads-up to win the 1989 Main Event for $755,000.
Hellmuth shared his thoughts with his rabid followers around the world via Twitter throughout Wednesday’s action in the 2010 WSOP. His final Tweet boasted that he had once again gotten the best of Bellande: “Playing about as good as I can play NL Hold’em. Raised [Bellande] with A-8, 1 round later mucked A-8 + he showed J-J! Heading [into] Day Two with 84,700.”
After recording a video with the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky mascot Sasquatch earlier in the day, Hellmuth recounted, “Hellmuth gets lucky!! First I folded A-Q for my last 6,000 with 1700 in pot (love it), then I smooth called min raise 1200 with A-10 on button, SB (Eric Lee) made it 4800 total. I shipped for 4800 more, he called with A-Q, A-5-2-9-10.” If it weren’t for luck, Lee would win every time in that spot.
A total of 2,341 players entered the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event and 270 remain. The top 243 will finish in the money and the winner walks away with $568,000. Luckily for Hellmuth, only a handful of “idiots from Northern Europe” remain, including Renato Maciariello (Sweden) and Martin Hansen (Denmark). The target of Hellmuth’s “Northern Europe” gem, Santeri Valikoski, hails from Finland.
Brand name players remaining in the top 100 in Event #8 include Bellande (13th with 89,200), Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy (33rd with 74,000), Tim “Tmay420” West (52nd with 62,300), Amnon Filippi (62nd with 55,800), Aaron Kanter (63rd with 55,400), Matt Hawrilenko (67th with 53,400), Steve Sung (74th with 48,300), and Pat Pezzin (91st with 43,500). Here’s a look at the top 10:
1. Josh Schlein – 127,300
2. Hugo Perez – 109,300
3. Blake Kelso – 108,100
4. Timothy Milliron – 106,900
5. Trickett Samuel – 102,800
6. Robert Harcarik – 102,300
7. Scott Vener – 101,000
8. Trevor Pope – 99,800
9. Davin Costa – 97,600
10. Jose Gatmaitan – 96,400
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WSOP headlines.
