Day 11: Phil Hellmuth ...

Tuesday, Jun. 12, 2007

Day 11: Phil Hellmuth Day at the 2007 WSOP

By Martin Derbyshire

Big day, this 2007 WSOP Day 11. This 11th Day of June. We made World Series of Poker history today. Or at least Phil Hellmuth Jr. did as the Poker Brat won, of all numbers, his record breaking 11th WSOP Gold Bracelet.

Phil will bank $637,254 for the win and it truly was Phil Hellmuth day. Poker legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan have 10 Bracelets, as did Phil before today, but he's the first player to ever reach 11.

Now when Phil tells people he's the best poker player on the planet, it's time to start taking him seriously - If you didn't before.

Classy Legends

Chan and Brunson were nice enough to join Phil at the bracelet ceremony. These guys are all class. Unfortunately, Harrah's is not.

The final table at the event, one of the many $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournaments run at the WSOP, commenced behind the big black shroud Harrah's uses to shield spectators from watching when they run their tape delayed streaming video coverage over the Internet.

They charge $49.95 for you to watch it at home, but poker fans and players who made the trek to the Rio today to watch Phil make history in person had to do it on a TV outside the tournament room an hour after it was happening. Adding insult to injury, the coverage featured audio that was about two minutes behind the on-screen action.

Harrah's needs to get a clue. If they keep doing things that tell poker fans they don't want them here, they are going to stop coming. Interest in the game and the WSOP will wane and it won't be long before no one is paying the fifty bucks to watch it at home.

It's a losing proposition, especially considering all the bad press they're getting for playing all this poker behind closed curtains.

Mad Money

I've watched Hellmuth play almost flawless poker in a number of events at the 2007 WSOP already and it was a pleasure. He makes incredible reads, prudent calls and well planned raises. He talks a pretty good game as well; probing for information, needling players to tilt them into bad mistakes and picking off those who dare to bluff him.

He has 11 bracelets for a reason and it could have been on display for a big crowd in the Amazon Room today, but Harrah's blew it.

A call came out over the loud speaker in the tournament room after the win inviting people to the bracelet ceremony. "Don't miss being a part of poker history," the voice said. Too late, we already did.

Richburg = Winnar!

Day 11 chugged along after the Hellmuth win/Harrah's fiasco with James Richburg taking his second WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 16, the $2,500 H.O.R.S.E tournament. Richburg outlasted Chess Champion Walter Browne for the win and a $239,503 payday. He had the lead all the way heads up, chipping away at Browne until the final hand of the match, during a round of Razz. Browne was all-in on third street with (2-5)-7 to Richburg's (2-4)-3. Richburg mated Browne with six-low, a heck of a lot worse (or better) than Browne's 10.

Rousso looked good, but no Bracelet

The Ladies event was slimmed down to the final nine and Frauke Ritter Von Sporschill will head into the final table tomorrow with a nice chip lead. Nice is a pretty good way to describe the play in this tournament as most of the ladies were quite cordial throughout the first two days. We'll see if it all remains friendly at the final table.

The World Championship of Limit Hold'em , A.K.A. Event 18, also got down to the final table at about 4 a.m. William Thorsson will start the final nine as chip leader with Ray Dehkharghani within range right behind him. They are at 8,000/15,000 right now and with the lowest stack sitting around $95,000 it's still anybody's game.

Talking and Playing - What Talent!

Other than that, they are down to 99 in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Event 19 that kicked off earlier in the day. Some short stack got his Aces cracked on the money bubble and they'll play down to the final nine on Tuesday with the always entertaining and often annoying Mike "The Mouth" Matusow right in the thick of it.

2006 WSOP Stud

Event 20, the $2,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Eight-or-Better event also got started and Day 1 ended with a leader board full of big names. Consensus 2006 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen, 2004 Main Event Winner Greg Raymer, Five Time WSOP Bracelet Winner Ted Forrest and WSOP Bracelet Holder Annie Duke are all in the top ten chasing 2006 WSOP Omaha Hi-Low Bracelet Winner Jack Zwerner, who holds the lead with 136 players left.

There's some serious action headed your way on Day 12 as long as Harrah's doesn't find another way to hide it from you.