Juanda beats Hellmuth to 2-7 Championship title

Juanda beats Hellmuth to 2-7 Championship title

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Well we didn't see this one coming. Phil Hellmuth has won all 11 of his World Series of Poker bracelets in varieties of hold'em so to see him go deep in the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship was something of a surprise.

After Richard Ashby was eliminated in third only John Juanda was standing between Hellmuth and bracelet number 12. Despite holding a 3 to 1 chip lead at the start of heads up play the Poker Brat couldn't quite stagger over the line. Juanda, who finished fourth in the 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship in both 2009 and 2010, steadily ground down Hellmuth and eventually sealed the deal after three hours of two-handed play.


Hellmuth finally moved all-in from the button for 550,000 and Juanda called. Hellmuth stood pat with Q-T-8-5-2 with Juanda drawing one card to J-8. The former WSOPE Main Event winner caught a 5 to give him bracelet number five leaving Hellmuth tantalisingly short of his twelfth.


Juanda was complimentary about his heads up opponent saying, “Tonight he played really well and if the cards had fallen his way he could have been standing here doing the interview.”


The final table positions and payouts were 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




Tags: WSOP 2011, #16: $10, 000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No-Limit), Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Richard Ashby