Big Hand, Modest Pot for Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth had a terrific start today, boosting his below average stack up to 140,000 within the first two levels. He then settled back around the 120,000-chip mark and has been there for most of the day. We just now caught an intriguing hand in which the Poker Brat was involved.
A player in middle position bet 2,700, and Hellmuth, sitting to his left, made the call. The blinds folded, and the flop came
. The raiser continued with a bet of 4,700, and Hellmuth wasted little time calling.The turn was the
, pairing the board. This time Hellmuth's opponent checked. Hellmuth sat up straight, rechecked his cards, looked to his right at his opponent, then gathered some chips. Finally he tossed out a smallish bet of 4,800, and his opponent called.The river was the
, provoking a "oooh" from the crowd. Hellmuth's opponent again checked, and this time Hellmuth pushed out 12,000. His opponent rechecked his cards, then folded.Hellmuth then flipped his cards face up to the dealer --
-- provoking a louder response from the crowd.As we move towards the last half-hour of play for the night, Hellmuth has about 135,000.