The Ace That Put Me on the Floor!

At the Bay 101 World Poker Tour final table — with the blinds at 10,000-20,000 — I managed to get 800,000 into the pot before the flop with my Q-Q against my opponent’s A J. With six players left, and first place paying $870,000 and sixth place $120,000, the flop came down K-6-5. When a 10 hit on the turn, my young opponent now had three aces and two queens to hit to win the pot. I was about to take the chip lead; I was just one card away. I could feel it. I deserved it, as I had dominated the poker tournament for 20 hours of playing time, never being all in or even close to it. Alas, the river was an ace! I just sat there, stunned, for almost 45 seconds. Now, surely, the “old Phil” would tell the kid what the score really was. Surely, Phil Hellmuth would give the kid a lecture about what a horrendous move he had just made, and that the kid wasn’t even in the same zip code in terms of skill, right? No, not this year; in 2010, I plan on being a perfect gentleman! But this was a huge test for me. One hole in my resume that is constantly pointed out to me is that I have not won a WPT event. So, I wanted this tournament so, so much — not to mention the money. I mean, if I had won this hand, I believe that I would have finished at least second, for $500,000.

After 45 seconds, I slowly rose from my chair, and then I shook everyone’s hand at the final table and wished them all good luck. Then, I lost it a bit. I was overcome with emotion; I fell to my hands and knees (in a dimly lit corner), and put my head between my arms. After another 45 seconds elapsed, I suddenly realized that the cameras (and the eyes of the poker world) were probably still on me. I wanted to stay down and lick my wounds. I wanted to stay down because I was in pain. I wanted to stay down until I felt better. But I knew that I had to get up and do my exit interview. As I stood up, sure enough, all of the cameras were still on me (obviously, they were expecting me to be the “Poker Brat”), but I managed to man up and give a pretty gracious exit interview.

As I waited for my sixth-place check, I signed a nonstop stream of autographs until I was called back to the stage by Matt Savage, who said, “Phil Hellmuth, please come back to the final-table area.”

I thought, “Oh, great; this is the Shooting Star tournament, and I still have to sign the T-shirt for the kid who busted me, the one who told me that he’s better than I am at no-limit hold’em tournaments.” I managed to smile and told myself, “Stop whining, man! Get up there and take it like a man.” As I entered the room, I received a standing ovation. After I signed the T-shirt with “Good luck, Phil Hellmuth Jr.,” I received another standing ovation. Could the world be embracing me, finally?

As to the hand, I limped in with Q-Q from the small blind. Then, the kid — in the big blind — raised it 55,000 into the 50,000 pot. I called the 55,000 and raised it 200,000 more to go into the 160,000 pot. No more slow-playing here; I made a big overraise and sent a strong message. Pot over, right? No, the kid moved all in for 800,000 total, and I quickly called. Someone announcing on the Internet actually called it a “cooler,” and I couldn’t believe that anyone would think like that. The kid had A-J! An example of a cooler is K-K vs. Q-Q. And the kid had been playing with me for two days, so he knew that I never played a big pot. Now, I suddenly ship 255,000 into a smallish pot, and A-J is going to be good — really? To me, the kid had the world’s easiest laydown. But the good news is this: Look out, world — I am back!

Learn more about Phil by going to his website, www.PhilHellmuth.com, and visit his webstore at www.PokerBrat.com.