The ‘Poker Brat’ put in one of the greatest performances of his poker career to take down this year’s WSOP Europe Main Event and claim his second Gold Bracelet of the year, a record 13th, and a cool €1,022,376 in prize money. Hellmuth’s win sees him join an elite group of WSOPE winners that includes Annette Obrestad, John Juanda, Phil Laak and Gus Hansen.
Even the great man himself admitted after his victory, “I Played the Best Poker of My Life in this Tournament” he said. For Hellmuth, bracelet number 13 comes only three months after he claimed his 12th in a Razz Event.
Hellmuth took the lead with about 40 players left never really looked back, dominating play all the way to the final table. With play down to heads-up only the Ukrainian Sergii Baronov stood in his way and Helllmuth wasn’g going to let that happen.
Hellmuth’s second win of the year means he now sits at the top of the leaderboard in the 2012 WSOP “Player of the Year” race and it looks very unlikely that he will be caught. The only player who has any chance of catching Hellmuth is Greg Merson but in order to do that he must win the WSOP Main Event Championship. The win also gives Hellmuth some extra breathing space over his closest rival Johnny Chan as the most successful WSOP player in history.
Other notable finishers at this year’s WSOPE Main Event include Jason Mercier, Bertrand Grospellier, Elio Fox (last year’s WSOP Europe champion), Eugene Katchalov, Daniel Negreanu, and Justin Bonomo who all finished in the money.
Here’s how the final table finished up:
1st – Phil Hellmuth, €1,022,376
2nd – Sergii Baranov, €632,592
3rd – Stephane Albertini, €423,360
4th – Joseph Cheong, €292,320
5th – Christopher Brammer, €207,648
6th – Paul Tedeschi, €149,184
7th – Stephane Girault, €108,864
8th – Jason Mercier, €84,672
