High profile poker pro Phil Hellmuth has lost out again in his quest for a record 14th World Series of Poker bracelet.
Having suffered his first disappointment this year when Ted Forrest thwarted his bracelet ambitions last week in the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Razz (see previous report), Hellmuth was eliminated in eighth position in Event 15, a $3,000 buy-in NLHE competition Saturday.
The event recorded a good turnout of 810 entrants, creating a prize pool of $2,211,300, which was enough to attract many notable names in addition to Hellmuth; spotted at the tables were Davidi Kitai, Vladimir Geshkenbein and Brandon Cantu, with only Kitai making the final table.
Kitai, a three-bracelet Belgian pro, topped the final table chip counts and managed to dominate much of the action despite the best efforts of fellow final tablers like Zahary Korik, John Andress, Mark Darner, Gordon Vayo and Tony Ruberto.
It all came down to a heads up between Kitai and Gordon Vayo, with Kitai holding a slight lead in a hotly contested heads up for the main prize of $508,640 that was still on-going when we went to press late evening Las Vegas time Saturday.