Phil Hellmuth Takes Ownership After a Tough Exit from the WSOP Main Event

July 07, 2019

Last week, 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth flew off on a "once-in-a-lifetime" trip to Machu Picchu and Galápagos Island with celebrities Rob Lowe and Peter Gruber, missing out on a chunk of the 2019 WSOP.

Fans were worried he was going to miss the $10,000 Main Event this year, but he flew in the night before to take advantage of the opportunity to register before the start of Day 2c. He got off to a decent start, chipping up to 70,000 from a starting stack of 60,000, but then things went sour.

"I'm out today mostly because of me."

After around five hours of play, Hellmuth found himself on the rail after a frustrating day on the felt. It all began with a failed bluff attempt against circuit grinder Kou Vang, and not much went right for him after that.

Hellmuth's Key 2019 Main Event Hands

The hand that sent Hellmuth off the rails was a failed triple-barrel bluff with five-high where he was called down by Vang in a three-bet pot. The ten-high board was paired, and the river brought in a four-card straight. Hellmuth snap-shoved the river having Vang's stack covered and Vang snap-called with two pair, leaving everyone stunned as Hellmuth was left on a stack worth under 20 big blinds.

"I made one reckless bluff - a guy made an amazing call on me. But that's on me."

Soon after, Hellmuth opened to 2,000 with the blinds at 500/1,000 with a 1,000 big blind ante and Benjamin Carroll shoved all in from the big blind with a slightly bigger stack. Hellmuth called and revealed ace-king off-suit, flipping against Carroll's pocket deuces. Hellmuth flopped top two and held to double, while Carroll was eliminated shortly after.

The Final Hand

Hellmuth grinded his half starting stack, but eventually dwindled back down to around 15,000. With the blinds at 600/1,200 with a 1,200 big blind ante, Hellmuth raised to 2,800, prompting a call from Timothy Stanczak in the big blind. The dealer put out a flop of 4♣4♦3♦ and Stanczak checked. Hellmuth bet 5,200 and Stanczak check-raised to 12,200, covering Hellmuth's remaining stack. Hellmuth went into the tank for about two minutes and eventually called with king-jack off-suit against the pocket fives of Stanczak.

Stanczak had two pair fives and fours, while Hellmuth had two over cards he could hit to improve on either the turn or river. Unfortunately for Hellmuth, the turn was the 8♣ and the river was the 6♣, sending him to the rail.

Taking Ownership

In his exit interview with Kara Scott via PokerGO, Hellmuth took ownership of his demise in the Main Event.

"I don't really have anybody to blame. Never really got started. I made one reckless bluff - a guy made an amazing call on me. But that's on me," Hellmuth told Scott. "Because in the Main Event you're dealing with people that just don't play very often, and so when you try something sophisticated, it's very difficult to get away with it. So then you have to own it. That's on me."

Daniel Negreanu was watching the broadcast, and posted a tweet in support of Hellmuth:

Hellmuth continued: "So, I'm out today mostly because of me. And I think once I was back to 30,000, I just needed my queens to hold up. I don't know what that guy had, he just won every pot. It was very frustrating."

"I probably should've come back a day earlier from the trip - it wasn't an option."

While he admits it may have been better to have returned to Vegas a bit earlier, the Poker Brat has no regrets about his decision to take the invite.

"I probably should've come back a day earlier from the trip - it wasn't an option. So, you know, it was an amazing invite, amazing people, and I went for it. I don't regret that."

Fortunately for Hellmuth, he has a little more than a week to regroup and try to clinch his 16th career bracelet.

Watch a clip of Hellmuth's exit interview via PokerGO's Twitter page here:

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