Poker pro Phil Hellmuth made history once again by winning a 14th record WSOP gold bracelet. Mere hours ago, the player topped the field of the $10,000 Razz Championship or Event #17 in the schedule of the 46th Annual WSOP.
The three-day event attracted a total of 103 entries, with some of the world’s best Razz players being among those. They created a prize pool of $968,200 and only the top 16 finishers received a portion of the money. The payouts started from $17,098. As for Hellmuth, he collected the amount of $271,105 in first-place prize.
Day 3 of the event started at 2 pm local time and saw 12 players returning. It took a little more than 10 hours for the winner to be determined. Hellmuth had some strong competition, as former bracelet winners like Mike Leah, Brandon Shack-Harris, and Thomas Keller were among the players who made the final table.
Eventually, the soon-to-be-champion faced one-time bracelet winner Mike Gorodinsky for a final heads-up play. It started with the latter holding the majority of chips. Hellmuth managed to quickly gain the lead. However, the chips swung from one player to the other for some time. Gorodinsky went all-in several times, striving for his second bracelet.
On what turned out to be the last hand in play, Gorodinsky had ([10x][2x])/[5x][4x][10x][Qx]/(x) against Hellmuth’s ([7x][6x])/[4x][Kx][10x][2x]/(x). Gorodinsky was the one to make the first bet of 60,000 on fourth street. Hellmuth raised to 120,000 and his opponent shoved his remaining chips in.
Being the chip leader at that time, Hellmuth had to turn over the last card before Gorodinsky. It was an [Ax]. Gorodinsky turned [6x], which was of no use to him. The Russian player, who currently resides in San Diego, California, scooped $167,517 for his runner-up finish.
Hellmuth, on the other hand, pocketed his record 109th cash in a WSOP event. His first-place prize amounted to $271,105. Apart from being the proud holder of 14 WSOP bracelets, the Poker Brat is the most prolific WSOP player, as he has collected more than $12.5 million in WSOP earnings.
Minutes after his major victory, the player said that he would give his bracelet to the family of Dave Goldberg, who was a close friend of his. Goldberg, founder of LAUNCH Media and CEO of SurveyMonkey, died unexpectedly last month.
Hellmuth won his first bracelet back in 1989, when he topped the field of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship. Since then, he has been spotted at almost all editions of the annual WSOP winning gold bracelets and scooping large amounts of money.
Up to now, Hellmuth’s live career earnings amount to $18,557,286. He collected his best live cash back in 2012, when he finished 4th in the $1,000,000 The BIG ONE for ONE DROP event for $2,645,333.
As mentioned above, the $10,000 Razz Championship attracted some well-known and experienced poker players. Englishman Adam Owen took 3rd place for $104,914, his fourth WSOP cash so far.
One-time bracelet winner Mike Leah from Toronto, Canada missed his chance for a second piece of the WSOP jewelry. Yet, he finished 4th to scoop $75,964 of the prize pool.
Thomas Keller from Scottsville, Arizona, yet another bracelet holder at the final table, took 5th place for $59,370. The player now has almost $1 million in WSOP winnings.
Finnish poker pro Jyri Merivirta finished 6th to collect $47,344. Stephen Chidwick from the UK took 7th place for $38,447.
Brandon Shack-Harris, who won his first WSOP bracelet this time last year, finished 8th and received the amount of $31,727. The Chicago-based player has cashed more than $1.5 million from WSOP events.
