Aside from four bracelets and millions of dollars on the line, there is something else to look forward to at this week’s World Series of Poker Europe festivities. Ultimate Bet personality Phil Hellmuth will be hosting a special lookalike contest. The winner will receive ₤2,000 and accompany Hellmuth and a dozen models into the playing area of the WSOP Europe Main Event.
The occasion is Phil Hellmuth’s pursuit of his 12th bracelet, which would be a new WSOP record. Each WSOP Europe tournament, just like its American counterpart, awards a gold bracelet to its winner. The Poker Brat commented in a press release distributed by Ultimate Bet on Tuesday, “I have a great chance to win my 12th bracelet at the WSOPE and break yet another world-record. I am the best poker player in the world, and while I don’t have to prove anything to the poker community, it would still be the greatest personal accomplishment to be the first to get 12.”
Hellmuth currently stands at 11 WSOP bracelets. Right behind him with 10 each are Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, two of the top names in the poker world. Holding nine bracelets is Johnny Moss, just ahead of Erik Seidel’s eight. Billy Baxter holds seven WSOP bracelets and Men “The Master” Nguyen, Layne Flack, TJ Cloutier, and Jay Heimowitz each have six. There are eight players with exactly five bracelets each; they include many players from Team Full Tilt.
Hellmuth is the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event at 24 years-old. He also holds the record for WSOP cashes with 69. Last year before the WSOP Europe, he drove around London in a Hellmuth-painted double-decker bus with 11 models, one for each of his pieces of hardware. Hellmuth’s quest for his 12th bracelet will culminate with the Main Event, which starts on Saturday. A ₤5,250 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament begins on Wednesday and a ₤2,650 HORSE tournament began today in London.
Many of Hellmuth’s Ultimate Bet co-workers are basking in sunny Aruba in preparation for the Aruba Poker Classic, which also begins on Saturday from the Radisson Resort and Casino in the tiny island nation. Preliminary tournaments will be held in Aruba and the $5,500 Main Event will kick off on Monday, September 29th with the first of two starting days. A champion will be crowned on Saturday, October 4th and Ultimate Bet is guaranteeing at least $1 million to the winner.
Ultimate Bet accepts U.S. customers and will soon be part of the CEREUS network with its sister site, Absolute Poker. Its main faces are Hellmuth and poker pro Annie Duke. A fleet of “Star Players” include Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, James “P0KERPR033” Campbell, “Best Damn Poker Show” Season One winner Tracy Scala, and actress and poker player Tiffany Michelle. It is regularly regarded as having some of the most skill-friendly tournament structures on the Web, with slowly-increasing blinds and deep starting chip stacks. Its marquee tournament is a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool event that runs every single Sunday.
