Hellmuth comes up short again!

Despite holding a commanding chip lead at one point, Phil Hellmuth has been forced to settle for second place once more as Brian Rast wins his second bracelet of the series in the $50,000 Player’s Championship.

Less than an hour before the event concluded, and heads-up against Rast, The Poker Brat appeared to have the match all sewn up. With 215 hands completed, Hellmuth’s stack stood at 16,300,000 chips– more than five times the 2,900,000 that Rast had in front of him.

However, as a  quick succession of big pots went Rast’s way, he doubled through twice with an ace-high and then trip kings to overtake Hellmuth as chip leader. Shortly afterwards he sealed the deal with a big all-in call.

Rast had called Hellmuth’s preflop raise and the flop came Jd 9d Ts. Rast bet out for 500,000 and Hellmuth shoved for his remaining chips. At this point Rast stood up and announced, ‘”I’m sorry Phil, I have the nuts. I call.” Rast showed Kc Qc for the nut straight and Hellmuth was holding 8d 2d.

Neither the 5h on the turn or the 8s on the river did anything to complete Hellmuth’s flush and Rast’s straight held up for the win. After the two men shook hands, Hellmuth advised Rath, ‘If i were you, i’d tip that dealer a million’.

This second place finish is Hellmuth’s third at this year’s WSOP and means that he has been runner-up more times than anyone else in 2011. His last bracelet win came in 2009 and made him the most successful WSOP competitor of all time with eleven bracelets to his name.