Close, But No Cigar For Poker Ace Hellmuth

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR FOR POKER ACE HELLMUTH (Update)

21st June, 2025 at 12:19:35

Source: bluffed.net

Bracelet number 12 continues to elude poker star

In an exciting third day heads up that continued into the small hours of Tuesday morning at the World Series of Poker, Phil Hellmuth again just missed out on his record-breaking bracelet number 12 in event 33: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship.

Hellmuth made it all the way to the heads up with winner Eric Rodawig at level 28, but the good cards and overwhelming chip lead enjoyed by the latter through most of the third day's play was too much for the high profile poker ace, who had to be content with a second placing prize of $273,233.

Rodawig, who claimed the bracelet and the main prize of $442,183 having bested an entry list that included many of the game's top players, started the third day as the significant chip leader and pretty much retained it through to the end, beating the 17 other players who started the day with him, including Hellmuth, John Racener, Jon Turner, Justin Smith, Cyndy Violette, Erik Seidel, Antony Lellouche, David Benyamine, Ted Forrest and Phil Laak.

Congratulations are also due to Kirk Caldwell, who emerged the winner from the third day of event 32: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em to pick up $668,292 and his first WSOP bracelet.

Just after midnight and going into Tuesday morning Caldwell beat his heads up opponent Ben White at level 30, ending a three day event which attracted a massive entry field of 2,828, creating a prize pool of $4.24 million.

Caldwell survived a field that included almost every big name in the game at the start, with daily elimination lists that looked like a who's who of international poker.

The third and final day of the competition was especially frenetic, with the last 35 players remaining being reduced to a final table of 9 in only five hours, and the eliminations coming thick and fast thereafter until Mark McLaughlin was busted out, leaving the heads up to Caldwell and White, with Caldwell in control, a position he managed to maintain until the end an hour later.

White's second placing was worth $414,918.