Rast had won the $1,500 PLO event on June 9th, which awarded him $227,232. With his massive $50k Player's Championship prize of $1,720,328, his winnings are an incredible $2 million for the 2011 WSOP.
Hellmuth collected his first seven figure tournament score of $1,063,034 and importantly vaulted into first position on the World Series of Poker player of the year leaderboard. He leads with 710 points, with Ben Lamb 60 points behind. As the Main Event winner will receive 500 points, it will require someone who has already done well in the series to have any chance of overtaking Hellmuth for Player of the Year.
Despite the disappointment of three runner up finishes, Hellmuth has had five cashes amounting to an impressive $1,591,004. He proved once again this series his talent in non-Hold'em games.
Against a stacked 128-player field that included many of poker's biggest names, including such heavyweights as WPT World Champion Scott Seiver, all-time money list number one Eric Seidel, Doyle Brunson, Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, and Team PokerStars icon Daniel Negreanu, Hellmuth navigated his way through the field never putting his stack in jeapardy while steadily building it.
Hellmuth had the upper hand as heads-up play began, being the aggressor and amassing a 5-1 chip lead at one point. Brian Rast then found himself needing some double ups and three hands later he was champion as his best hands survived three flush draws that would have crowned Hellmuth champion. None of them came in and Hellmuth was out in second. Rast's supporters burst out in a loud celebration.
Hellmuth commented to Rast immediately after his loss that "he ought to tip the dealer $1 million."
Rast added later "“This bracelet means a lot. This is an event that is full of a lot of the top players, not every one, but a lot of them and it’s an event that you have to go through a lot of good players to win. The $1,500 pot-limit hold ‘em was great winning, it was my first bracelet, but it’s not like I really played a whole bunch of the top professionals and beat them in order to win that bracelet. This bracelet I did that. The buy-in is $50,000, it’s just a prestigious tournament that kind of like earns respect.”
Final Results:
Place Player Prize
1. Brian Rast $1,720,328
2. Phil Hellmuth $1,063,034
3. Minh Ly $665,763
4. Owais Ahmed $482,085
5. Matt Glantz $376,750
6. George Lind $300,441
7. Scott Seiver $243,978
8. Ben Lamb $201,338
