WSOPE 2011 Is Underway - Hellmuth Looking For 12th Bracelet

The World Series of Poker Europe 2011 is finally here, the first event already ended with the partipation of 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. The hot-dog-riding Poker Brat finished 7th, missing a final table appearance at the €2,500 Six-Max NLHE event. Guillaume Humbert took down the main prize in the end.

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The first event of this year's WSOPE attracted 360 players and amongst them there was our beloved drug-using hot-dog-riding Phil Hellmuth [4]. The prize pool was huge, the winner would take €215,999 and a coveted WSOPE bracelet. The vast field narrowed down to just 12 in 2 days. The chipleader came to be Roy Finlay, who eliminated most of his table including David Benyamine, Anton Wigg and Bruno Benveniste. Then came Casey Kastle and Alexander Salabaschew, who didn't make it to the final 6. The bubble boy came to be our Phil Hellmuth, who could make it either, he finished 7th. He wasn't quite happy with his result, standing up from the table he said:

"I don’t play these things to finish seventh, I feel horrible. If I had won I would have called it my masterpiece but I guess I missed a few brush strokes along the way" - said Hellmuth bitterly. "When Picasso drew a masterpiece he didn’t have to deal with luck" - he added.

This, however is not nearly as big a tragedy as Hellmuth thinks; the poker community comes to accept him as one of the best poker tournament players ever, as after his scandals and bad plays he managed to recover, scoring 3 second place finishes at the 2011 WSOP.

As Hellmuth left the table, the finals were all set. The first person to be eliminated came to be the Hungarian Marton Czuzor, who was followed by Adrien Allain; both were slaughtered by Azusa Maeda. Matan Krakow and Roy Finlay were soon out, which established the final heads-up between Maeda and Guillaume Humbert. The battle of the two didn't bring too much action, in the final hand Maeda moved all-in on Humbert after he checked on the 9 7 6 flop. Humbert holding the 5 8 snap-called. Maeda's 4 3 was drawing dead on the 4 turn, granting Humbert his WSOPE bracelet.

Guillaume Humbert

Final results:

1. Guillaume Humbert €215,999
2. Azusa Maeda €133,471
3. Roy Finlay €92,629
4. Matan Krakow €65,068
5. Adrien Allain €46,250
6. Marton Czuczor €33,255