The 11-time bracelet winner has traditionally made it a tendency to show up late. Although his tardiness has normally applied to his tournament start times, this time around, Phil Hellmuth made a late surge to the top of the 2011 Player of the Year leaderboard.
With his latest cash in the $50,000 Players Championship at the World Series of Poker, Hellmuth now headlines a group of several players who remain in contention for this year’s WSOP Player of the Year award.
Through the accumulation of deep finishes at the WSOP, players are rewarded with an equivalent amount of points depending on how well their tournaments conclude. Those who finish at towards the top of their events, will receive the most points.
Because of Hellmuth’s three runner-up entries, he currently stands at number one on the list in terms of overall points. Despite not winning a bracelet yet this year at the WSOP, it appears that Hellmuth will win this award, as he’s currently ahead on his closest competitor by 50 points. Hellmuth has 710.25 points.
Right now sitting in second place is Ben Lamb, the recent winner of the $10K Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet. Because of his great success this year, with another a runner-up showing in the $3K Pot-Limit Omaha event, he’s put himself in great position to end the WSOP with yet another title. He’s sitting still with 659.05 points at the moment.
Interestingly enough, the player with the most gold bracelets at this year’s WSOP is stuck in third place, and that’s Brian Rast. Winning both the $50K Players Championship and a $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event in 2011, Rast arguably has the most confidence heading into his Main Event appearance. But despite his increased tenacity, he’ll likely need to make a deep run in the Main to bring home the POY award.
Rast has 550.00 points.
In other related news, the 2011 Main Event is underway, with all four Day 1s in completion. A total of 6,865 players entered, which is the third-largest Main Event ever recorded.
Several big names made it through successfully to Day 2s, including the likes of Patrik Antonius, Phil Galfond and Ben Lamb.
Some notable players who have busted thus far include, NBA star Paul Pierce, Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates, Johnny Chan, Michael Mizrachi, Brian Hastings, Scotty Nguyen, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
Despite all of Dwan’s tournament entries and side bets, he was unable to land his first bracelet at the WSOP. He found solace in the fact that his dad was still alive, however.
Hellmuth, who was not surprisingly late to his Day 2A tournament start, actually didn’t intentionally miss his opening time. Nearly missing his entire Day 2, because of the concern of his dear friend Mike Matusow, the hotel staff at Hellmuth’s place of residence was alerted to promptly wake the “Poker Brat” from his slumber.
Amazingly, Hellmuth was able to turn a dwindled 7,000 into 64,900 by the end of his Day 2A. Never being called, or needing to go all-in, Hellmuth was intent and patient in his approach, and he’s certain that his Main Event fortune is a sign of destiny at this year’s tournament.
“It feels to me like my 65,000 is a million,” stated Hellmuth. “So I feel great.”
Despite the happiness of his resurgent chip stack, the chip leader after Day 2A is far-ahead of the optimistic Hellmuth. Russian Aleksandr Mozhnyakov, currently leads all competitors with 478,600 in chips.
Players who survived on Day 2A will eventually meet the players of Day 2B, whom play at 12 p.m. today.
Day 3 begins on Thursday at the same time.
Keep an eye out for more action at the 2011 WSOP.
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