Phil Hellmuth Bags 12th Bracelet at Razz Event
Phil Hellmuth took home the twelfth bracelet of his career, when he won the $2,500 Razz event. In heads-up play, he had to compete against Don Zewin, a veteran poker player who had cashed in 18 events, making an overall earning of $529,582. The bracelet is the first for Hellmuth in an event which was not in the Hold’em format. However, it was not the first time the player had Zewin as an opponent. One of the most memorable WSOP events in which Hellmuth played against Zewin was the main event in 1989. According to Hellmuth, Zewin is careful about his tells at the table, which makes it difficult to read him.
Final Table
At the final table, Hellmuth was joined by five other poker professionals who had WSOP bracelets to their name. Among them was Barry Greenstein, who has proved to be a maverick in Razz, when he won the 2008 championship event. Despite being faced with a number of formidable opponents, Hellmuth took the place of chip lead and maintained it. He believes that no matter how many bracelets and other accolades a player would have earned in the past, there is only one way to be considered a good player by fans – to win consistently.
Eliminations
The official final table comprised eight players of who, Scott Fischman, Hellmuth and Brendan Taylor were in contention for the place of the chip lead. The three played their part in bringing down the field to just six. The first elimination from the official final table was of Jeff Misteff, who drew dead before he could make it to the seventh street. Having sent Misteff to the rail, Taylor stayed the chip lead for a few hands after. Michael Chow went out in seventh place when he went up against Hellmuth. Cantu sent Greenstein to the rail in sixth, and Taylor in fifth.
Though Taylor started the day as one of the top players in chip lead, he was unable to make it to heads-up play. One of the factors that worked against him was that he could not pick a pot anytime after the first few hands. With his elimination, the game entered four-handed play, with Fischman in the position of the short stack. A few hands later, the player faced-off against Zewin, who took him out in fourth place. From here, the limits increased, so much so that one of the remaining players – Cantu – could not make it past the challenge of paying for the blinds. When Hellmuth and Zewin went into heads-up session, the game-play was nail biting. Though Hellmuth was in the lead during the session with 1.1 million, Zewin persisted to close the gap by taking his chip stack up to 1 million.
Phi Ivey Tries for his Ninth Bracelet
Besides Hellmuth, another player was trying his best to earn a bracelet to add to his rather impressive collection – Phil Ivey. In the time he has spent at the WSOP, the player has bagged eight bracelets. He was gunning for the ninth in this event. Another WSOP event in which he came close to landing the win was in a world championship where he was locked in heads-up play against Andy Frankenberger, who went on to win the bracelet.
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