Phil Hellmuth runner up for the second time at this year’s WSOP
Phil Hellmuth’s dreams of winning his 12th bracelet have been snatched at the death for the second time this year in the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split 8 or Better Championship. It’s been less than two weeks since Hellmuth lost out to John Juanda in the $10k Lowball Championship.
This time his slayer was little known Eric Rodawig, a Cardrunners instructor who actually specialises in the Stud 8 variant.
Hellmuth came through a field of 168 to reach a stellar final table which included David Benyamine, Ted Forrest and last year’s WSOP main event runner up John Racener.
Six-handed, Hellmuth looked to be on his last legs after doubling up Racener and slipped to the bottom of the chipcounts. But he managed to complete an unlikely fightback after doubling up himself through Rodawig and then eliminating Benyamine.
Down to three players Rodawig managed to open up his lead even more and it was an epic battle between Hellmuth and Racener for the second spot. Finally Hellmuth managed to take out Racener but had a lot of ground to make up on the Cardrunners instructor.
The Poker Brat managed to survive after being on the ropes several times but in the end Rodawig’s experience in the variant was always going to make him a difficult opponent to topple. Hellmuth was left still searching for that elusive 12th bracelet.
