2008 World Series of Poker

39th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event
Day: 3
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Event Info

2008 World Series of Poker

Event Info
Buy-in
$10,000
Entries
6,844
Players Left
9
Next Payout
Place 9
$900,670
Level Info
Level
33
Blinds
120,000 / 240,000
Ante
30,000

Three-Ring Hellmuth

[user66118]
[user66118]
From under the gun, Phil Hellmuth came in raising three times the big blind, making it 9,000 total to play. A player in late position reraised to 24,000, and it came back around to Hellmuth. He bumped it up further, making it a total of 84,000, and his opponent called.

The two men saw the flop come down {Q-Diamonds} {5-Clubs} {2-Spades}. Hellmuth relinquished control of the betting, checking it over to the other player, who put out a bet of 60,000. Hellmuth then check-raised all in, and the circus ensued.

Hellmuth stood up from his chair and yelled to nearby buddy Mike Matusow. "Mikey! Mikey! I just spent half a million!"

Matusow got up from his own chair and began to make his way over toward his pal. As he was walking, he prodded, "I'm surprised you had half a million to spend." By this time, a huge contingent of media had gathered around the table, and Matusow had a hard time getting a peek of the action.

When he finally did make it over there, Hellmuth said, "There's already 300 thousand in the middle and I'm all in." By this time, the crowd of onlookers had grown to three-deep around Table Blue 19. ESPN's crew was right in the front row though, ready to capture the breaking news.

It was something of a letdown though, as after several minutes of camera time, Hellmuth's opponent surrendered and let the pro take down the pot. With that uncontested victory, The Poker Brat has moved up to 470,000. Now he does have nearly a half million to bet, if he chooses.

Tags: Phil Hellmuth