Phil Hellmuth Jr. His Tenth Gold Bracelet

It was the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Rebuy tournament at the Rio Pavilion in Las Vegas. Phil Hellmuth Jr. made the record books by receiving his tenth gold bracelet!

Hellmuth faced off with Juha Helppi to reclaim his place as number one. Crowned the "poker brat," Hellmuth now joins the ranks of Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, the only other pros to have won ten World Championships of Poker, and the most all-time wins.

From a field of 754 players, Hellmuth went into the final table with a chip lead of 768,000 against Daryn Firicano, Juha Helppi, Rafael Perry, Terris Preston, John Spadavecchia, David Plastik, Elio Cabrera, and Antanas "Tony" Guoga. After a long heads up battle against Helpppi, Hellmuth won $631,863, his share of a $2,340,238 prize pool in the event holding an A of Spades J of Hearts against Helppi's A of Diamonds 9 of Hearts when the board came up Q of Spades, 8 of Spades, 2 of Clubs, K of Spades, and 6 of Clubs.

Hellmuth has been a force on the poker scene since 1989 when he became the youngest World Series of Poker champion at the age of 24, taking home his first gold bracelet and an astounding $775,000. His stated career goal is to become the best poker player of all time. Now with ten WSOP victories (two of them in 2003), four Hall of Fame titles, and more than fifty tournament titles, Hellmuth is well on his way to cementing his poker legacy. Winning three WSOP titles and a second place finish in 1993 is considered the best feat in the history of poker. In the World Poker Tour tournaments Hellmuth has amassed top-ten finishes and in 2005, Hellmuth took first place ($500,000) at the Golden Nugget's NBC National Heads-Up Poker tournament against 64 of the world's best poker players. He has won dozens of major tournaments internationally, including wins at the World's Biggest Seven-card Stud Tournament in Vienna at Casinos Austria, the Poker EM "European Champion," (2000), and Late Night Poker III Champion in Great Britain (2000). Added to his list of titles is also the 1995 Hall of Fame Championship Event.

In addition to today's triumph, on June 30th Hellmuth reached another key record in WSOP history when he became the first player ever to cash-in 50 times, getting 67th place in a field of 2,776 players at the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event. Hellmuth is now able to claim that he is the first player to ever reach that mark, which again puts him into the annals of World Series history.

To hear Phil's story go to his BLOG at http://www.philhellmuth.com/phil-hellmuth-poker-blog.html.

News Added: 26 July, 2006

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