Phil Hellmuth Wins Borgata Winter Poker Open Heads-Up Event

In recent years, Phil Hellmuth has cut back on his schedule of live poker tournaments played outside of the World Series of Poker. The all-time leader in WSOP bracelets had cashed in only one live tournament since winning his record-furthering 15th win at the series in the $5,000 turbo no-limit hold’em event on July 11, 2018.

Hellmuth broke the dry spell and got his 2019 off to a strong start by taking down the Borgata Winter Poker Open $1,590 no-limit hold’em heads-up event. The ‘Poker Brat’ defeated a field of 64 entries in the event to earn $37,248 and 144 Card Player Player of the Year points.

Hellmuth nearly didn’t make it to the finals. As reported on the Borgata Winter Poker Open blog, Hellmuth was tied 1-1, and down to just 3,700 to Ryan Hall, who had 26,300 at his high-point in the deciding match. Hellmuth was able to battle back from that huge deficit, however, to set up a final-round showdown with Joseph Cappello, whom had defeated World Poker Tour champion and online heads-up sit-n-go legend Olivier Busquet.

Hellmuth took the first match in the best-of-three showdown, getting all-in on a 10759 board with the 109 for two pair. Cappello had 106 and was in need of help heading into the river. The 5 secured the first match for Hellmuth.

The second match saw Cappello build a 2:1 lead before Hellmuth was able to mount a comeback. By the time the final hand arose Cappello was down to just a handful of big blinds. He moved all-in with the Q7 and Hellmuth called with the K9. The board came down JJ4A3 and Hellmuth’s high card earned him the pot and the title. Cappello was awarded $18,624 as the second-place finisher.

Hellmuth took to Twitter to celebrate the win and the fact that he was able to take a break in between matches to enter day 1A of the World Poker Tour main event at the series and run up an 88,500 stack.

Hello BorgataPoker</a> Heads Up Tourney Trophy! Great start to my trip, one tourney = one trophy. Back at in <a href="https://twitter.com/WPT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">WPT Day 2 on Tuesday #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/2j2arLMTGK

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) January 28, 2019

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded in this event:

Winner photo credit: Borgata Winter Poker Open Blog.

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