Brian Rast denied Phil Hellmuth of what would have been his 12th World Series of Poker bracelet early on Thursday when he conquered the $50k Players Championship. Had Hellmuth won the event, he would have set a new record for most WSOP bracelets acquired by a single player.
Rast dug himself out of an enormous hole to eventually defeat Hellmuth heads up, winning his second bracelet of the tournament in addition to a massive $1.7 million first prize. The 55th event of the 2011 WSOP brought in 128 players, each of whom paid a buy-in of $50,000 to create a $6.1 million prize pool.
Hellmuth’s last bracelet win came four years ago, and during that time, he’s scored three 2nd-place finishes across seven final tables. Hellmuth’s rail is all but declaring a curse, especially given that Hellmuth entered heads up play with 16 million chips compared to Rast’s paltry 3 million. However, cooler heads are calling it like it is: solid play on the part of Rast. Rast managed to double up twice shortly into heads up play.
Hellmuth, who described the loss as “pretty brutal,” played an excellent game until the end. Known primarily as an HLHE specialist, very few individuals expected him to come close to his 12th bracelet in a mixed-gamed event. Regardless, he held his own at the final table while respected pros including Owais Ahmed, George Lind, Scott Seiver, Matt Giantz, Minh Ly and Ben Lamb were knocked out.
There was more on the line than just the bracelet and prize money in the $50k Players Championship, as both Hellmuth and Ben Lamb are frontrunners for the title of 2011 WSOP Player of the Year. Lamb’s 7th place finish gave Hellmuth the obvious edge in this category, though Hellmuth said he’s only after bracelets, anyhow.
Hellmuth, who earned a cool $1.06 million for his runner-up finish, now has his sights set on the Main Event. With all of the other events wrapped up, this represents his last chance of the year to break the bracelet record.
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