Poker star falls short in pursuit of record 18th WSOP victory

Phil Hellmuth fell short in his bid to win his 18th career World Series of Poker event Tuesday.

With a large crowd gathered at the Horseshoe Events Center hoping to see history, Hellmuth finished fourth in the $1,500 buy-in Omaha Mixed event. He earned $64,324 for his first final-table appearance this summer.

Hellmuth was looking to extend his record for WSOP bracelets, which are awarded for tournament victories. The player known as the “Poker Brat” has 17 overall. Phil Ivey won his 11th career bracelet June 13 to move into second place on the all-time list.

“The last hand hurts,” Hellmuth said in an interview with PokerGO. “They all played pretty good. I was just waiting for them to make a mistake and it happened so quickly, I kind of … unfortunately when I woke up this morning, I couldn’t get fourth place out of my mind.”

Hellmuth began Day 3 of the Mixed Omaha event sixth in chips with 22 players remaining. He fought his way to the final table without winning many significant pots along the way. It wasn’t until six-handed action that Hellmuth made a move and another bracelet looked possible.

But after Joshua Adcock went out in fifth place, Hellmuth’s stack slowly started to dwindle. He was ultimately sent to the rail by Magnus Edengren of Sweden during a hand of Pot-limit Omaha High-Low.

Hellmuth flopped the nut-flush draw against Edengren’s pair of aces. The turn added a low draw for Hellmuth that would have guaranteed him half the pot if he made his hand. But the river was no help at all, and Hellmuth was eliminated.

“That last move was my mistake,” Hellmuth told PokerGO. “If I just call him, then everything’s going to be different. I’m still going to be in the tournament and then maybe I finally catch a run. So, you also have to look at your own mistakes.”

Action was halted late Tuesday with three players left and resumes at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Edengren owns the chip lead. James Juvancic of Illinois is in second place. Florida’s Tim Seidensticker, an Omaha specialist who spent most of Day 3 on the short stack, is third.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on X.