European Player Beats the Poker Brat

Monday, 12 March 2007

Juha Helppi celebrated his 30th birthday in style and avenged his inner demons by winning the inaugural Premier League Poker title.
Helppi, from Helsinki, Finland, showed skill and patience in abundance to overcome a world-class field as part o

Juha Helppi celebrated his 30th birthday in style and avenged his inner demons by winning the inaugural Premier League Poker title.
Helppi, from Helsinki, Finland, showed skill and patience in abundance to overcome a world-class field as part of a televised tourney, filmed in Kent, UK.
As well as celebrating his landmark birthday, the flying Finn, who has also been a national paintball champion, shot down poker legend Phil Hellmuth, who won his landmark 10th WSOP bracelet at his expense last year.
'This was not about the money,' said Helppi. 'If I hadn't beaten Phil it would have hurt really bad. This is a big title with a top quality field and it happened as I hit a big landmark in my life.”
Hellmuth had taken the field by storm earlier in the week and went into the final as chip leader. Juha had finished 3rd in the league table but had impressed all his fellow players with his unbreakable focus.
'Phil really wanted to win this one and didn't take it too well, I think I managed to tilt him on one occasion,” Helpi continued. “This does help with losing out on the bracelet and is satisfying because the league structure means that skill was so important.'
The final table lasted over 7 hours with 1.6 million chips in play and blinds starting at 1,000/2,000.



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