Thursday, 28th March 2024 15:19
Home / Uncategorized / PCA 2013: Hellmuth arrives for flying visit

Five minutes before the start of the second day in the $25,000 high roller Phil Hellmuth was walking in the wrong direction.

Hellmuth cuts a striking figure in the hallways of the Atlantis Resort. For a start he’s the only man with his name on his shirt, or at least his nickname “Poker Brat”. He also wears a large jacket, good for skiing perhaps, despite the 81 degree sunshine outside. On top of all this his head appears enormous owing to a baseball cap and noise cancelling headphones. These are actually people cancelling headphones. No one disturbs the man when he has them on and with the oil stain sunglasses you would never know that he was looking at you, even if he was. He’s not.

phil_hellmuth_pca10_hr2.jpg

Phil Hellmuth in action. Briefly.

So even if you pointed out to him that he was walking in the wrong direction, directly away from the tournament room, he wouldn’t hear you or see you.

And so when play started in the high roller it was without Hellmuth, although that’s hardly unusual. The man is favourable to a late entry, so much so that you wonder if he actually arrived on time how much he might achieve*.

Hellmuth skipped yesterday, the official first day, and opted to leap in on the second, with blinds at 1,200/2,400 with a 300 ante (and a starting stack of 50,000). Ten minutes after play began he’d found his way to the playing area, taken his seat and received a first hand in anger. Less than 90 minutes later he’d be out.

Sound familiar? Hellmuth had the same outcome in the $100,000 Super High Roller in which he lasted for an even shorter period. He lasted a little longer in the main event but for the Brat, the PCA has not gone exactly as he’d have anticipated.

* irony

Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter

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