Phil Hellmuth Crashes Out Of 2014 WSOP Main Event

Back in 1989, Phil Hellmuth won the WSOP Main Event for $755,000 and has since grown his gold bracelet tally to 13. This year, the 49 year-old legend gave another fine performance in Las Vegas and amassed a further $203,818 in WSOP winnings, including finishing the runner-up at the $1,500 Seven Card Razz (Event #7) for $74,848.
However, the WSOP is now over for Hellmuth for another year after being eliminated on Day 2c of the $10k Main Event. Tournament poker’s showcase event had attracted 6,683 players to the Rio in Las Vegas, and after making it through to Day 2c, Hellmuth tweeted:
“In #WSOPMainEvent, 6,683 started, 3300 remain after 3 Day 1s: I have 49,425, ave is 60,000. Day 2a Tues, I play Day 2b Weds #POSITIVITY!”
Unfortunately for Hellmuth things just didn’t seem to go his way and he was eventually bounced from the competition after two disastrous hands. In the first, Hellmuth three-bet preflop from the small blind before check-raising an Ah-Jd-6d flop. Hellmuth was unable to shake his opponent, though, and after both players checked the K turn card, Hellmuth led out on the K river only to then fold to a re-raise.
At this point Hellmuth had just 12,000 chips remaining and after his preflop A-3 push all-in was called by an opponent holding A-J, Hellmuth soon found himself on the rail. Taking to twitter soon after, the poker superstar wrote:
“Busted myself in #WSOPMainEvent…Bluffed off too many chips in 1 pot. Bluffing kept me in there, BUT live by the sword, die by the sword.”
Nevertheless, Hellmuth was in good company and exited Day 2c alongside a slew of other former WSOP Main Event champions, including Berry Johnston (1986), Scotty Nguyen (1998), Carlos Mortensen (2001), Joe Hachem (2005), Joe Cada (2009), and Jonathan Duhamel (2010).
All three Day 2’s of the Main Event are now in the bag, with just 1,864 players remaining to join a communal Day 3. Only 693 places will get paid with a guaranteed top prize of $10 million awaiting the eventual winner. In the meantime, 10-times WSOP winner Phil Ivey leads the overall field on a huge 505,000 stack, with a plethora of other big name pros still remaining, including John Hennigan (342,700), Antonio Esfandiari (277,800), Chris Moneymaker (222,000), Kevin MacPhee (182,000), Ole Schemion (180,900) Marvin Rettenmaier (173,200), Phil Galfond (165,900), John Juanda (133,700), Barry Greenstein (113,500), Jake Cody (80,000) and Daniel Negreanu (39,800).