It’s an odd paradox that the lower the number of attendees a World Series tournament gets, the more media attention it garners. The reason is that contests like Event #16, the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship, only appeal to a select group of players. That refined bunch usually tend to be the best in the business, so when the action gets down to the final few, you’ve usually got big names still in the hunt.
There is no name bigger in poker than Phil Hellmuth. The Poker Brat is often derided for the atrophic status of his poker skills, but there’s no denying the man’s incredible history at the WSOP. After becoming the youngest ever Main Event winner in 1989, he has gone on to amass an unbeaten 11 bracelets.
At the final table of Event #16 Hellmuth was going for his twelfth, in addition to topping off a few more high scores. With 80 WSOP cashes and 41 final tables, he is the world leader in both categories. It also seemed like his play was back to its best as he ran over the entire table during the $10k event.
That was until he came head-to-head with John Juanda. The Indonesian maestro has demonstrated his prowess at this very niche form of poker, finishing 4th in this event the previous two years running. He was notching up his 56th WSOP cash and was on the look out for his 5th bracelet. John’s last World Series victory came in the 2008 WSOPE Main Event.
Intriguingly, if Juanda were to win Event #16, he would leapfrog Hellmuth into 5th place on the All Time Money List. Facing down a chip deficit of 3:1, it looked like Phil would be writing the headlines, but an impressive come back from the Juanda quickly set the record straight. So it was John who took the plaudits, but Hellmuth deserves some credit for recapturing a sense of just why he was considered the best tournament player in the world.
There were a bucket-load of famous names littered throughout the event’s 126 entrants and a few of the biggest made it into the money. Almost every player who cashes will be known to poker fans, but stars like Greg Raymer (9th), Bertrand Grospellier (11th), and Johnny Chan (12th) were a cut above the rest.
The $10k Lowball Championship wasn’t the first time that John Juanda has filled column inches this WSOP. At the $25k Heads-Up event that began the open portion of the series, UK pro James Bord was heard threatening John. After being called a “thieving prick,” Juanda was escorted from the building, reportedly for his own protection. Details of why the fracas occurred are not known, but may be related to a similar incident that occured during an April cash game in Macau.
With a fifth bracelet on his wrist, John was considerably happier. “Tonight there were a lot of great players. It’s tough to post a $10,000 buy-in tournament, especially in a game like no-limit 2-7, so I didn’t expect it to be easy. I actually started today as the shortest stack and obviously had to catch some cards. You know, I just took it one hand at a time.”
He was also complimentary about Hellmuth’s effort. “Overall I was very impressed with the way he played. You know, a lot of people said he couldn’t play anything besides hold ’em, but tonight he played really well. If the cards would have fallen his way he could be standing here doing the interview instead of me.”
Full payouts for WSOP 2011 Event #16 are as follows:
1. John Juanda ($367,170)
2. Phil Hellmuth ($226,907)
3. Richard Ashby ($143,833)
4. Steve Sung ($97,416)
5. Nick Schulman ($69,216)
6. David Bakes Baker ($51,485)
7. Hasan Habib ($40,020)
8. Joe Cassidy ($32,440)
9. Greg Raymer ($27,928)
10. Benjamin Parker ($27,928)
11. Bertrand Grospellier ($27,928)
12. Johnny Chan ($24,043)
13. Brandon Cantu ($24,043)
14. Chino Rheem ($24,043)