It took 115 hands before Juanda overcame Hellmuth at the final table before an appreciative crowd that was allowed to consume alcoholic beverages once again after an earlier prohibition was lifted.
"Hellmuth actually played pretty good," said Juanda. "I was impressed with the way that he played. He made one really great play against Joe (Cassidy), who had the winning hand and he became the chip leader after that. So, 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."
It had taken to the sixteenth event of the 2011 World Series of Poker before there was a marquee lineup and repeat bracelet winner. Including the bracelet that Juanda won, there were 20 bracelets represented at the final table of the Lowball World Championship.For Hellmuth, this was his first cash of the 2011 WSOP and his 80th in his career. He not only holds record for WSOP bracelets, but most times in the money as well. Despite all of his previous WSOP accomplishments, Hellmuth has never won an event in a discipline besides Hold 'em. He now has two runner-up finishes and a fourth-place finish in lowball events at the WSOP throughout his career.
While there were but 126 entrants in the $10,000 buy-in event, 14 of whom made the money, there were many respected pros who battled for the bracelet and their part of the $1,184,400 prize pool.
Final Table results:
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 'ElkY' Grospellier ($27,928)
12. Johnny Chan ($24,043)
13. Brandon Cantu ($24,043)
14. Chino Rheem ($24,043)
