Phil Hellmuth wins a record 17th World Series of Poker gold bracelet

He did it again. Phil Hellmuth extended his all-time lead World Series of Poker title leader by knocking down 2023 WSOP $10,000 no-limit hold’em super turbo bounty event for record-breaking 17th gold bracelet.

Hellmuth now has seven more bracelets than his closest competitor, with legends of the game including Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan and the late Doyle Brunson all tied with ten wins each.

This latest victory saw the 58-year-old Hellmuth outlast a field of 642 in a tournament that took just a day to complete. Even with an incredibly fast structure, the final hand wasn’t dealt until around 5:20 in the morning, meaning the event took over 15 hours in total to complete.

In addition to the bracelet, Hellmuth also earned $803,818 as champion of this event. This was his fifth-highest career mark, raising his lifetime earnings to more than $26.4 million. More than $17.7 million of that money came from Hellmuth’s 197 takings at the WSOP, the third player in series history. It now trails only Antonio Esfandiari ($21.9 million) and Daniel Negreanu ($20.9) in that category.

BOOM!! Hello 17th World Championship!!! #POSITIVITY @WSOP #PHNiceLife pic.twitter.com/HHDjAPvG6v

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 2, 2023

This was Hellmuth’s 14th hold’em bracelet, the first being 1989 WSOP race for the main event title. Hellmuth also downed the WSOP Europe main event in 2012, a win which saw him become the only player to have won both main event titles. Hellmuth’s has three non-hold’em bracelets, one in lowball no-limit deuce-to-7 single draw and two in razz.

Hellmuth received 2,100 Card player Player of the Year points for winning. This was his second title and third place final table finish of the year, after winning an average of U.S. Poker Open event in March and finished fifth in another tournament in the same series. With 2,755 total points, Hellmuth climbed to 35th place in 2023 POY extension race classification presented by Global Poker.

Hellmuth also increased the Tour of PokerGO classification thanks to this victory. The 804_PGT_ points he scored were enough to see him claim sixth place in that standings.

The top 97 finishers made money in this event, with many big names in the running, including 2015 WSOP longtime main event champion Joe McKeehen (77th). High stakes poker hosts Gabe Kaplan (27th), Tom Marchese (25th), Poker World Tour champion Markus Gonsalves, two-time bracelet winner Lawrence Brandt (10h) and high-stakes tournament regular Brandon Steven (7th).

Incredibly, Hellmuth wasn’t the only player at the top of the bracelet leaderboard to make this final table. Phil Ivey came within a handful of places of winning his 11th bracelet, but eventually busted in 6th place ($133,461).

Ivey managed K10 in theA by Hellmuth during the six-man game. Ivey hit an open-ended straight draw on the turn, but a brick river saw the 10-time bracelet winner eliminated just before 4:00 am local time. He now has more than $38.1 million in career tournament earnings.

Justin Zaki beat Chris Savage’s pocket kings (5th – $181,230) with Q-9, making trips to win the pot and narrow the field to four. Tom Kunze then eliminated Kelvin Kerber (4th – $249,876), with K-3 beating Q-10 suited.

Kunze moved all-in with an open-ended straight draw against Hellmuth’s turn top pair. Kunze made a pair late on, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Hellmuth’s kings, and Kunze’s run ended in third place ($349,737).

Heads-up only lasted one hand. In a limped pot, Hellmuth led with K84 flop with 84. Zaki moved all-in with 76 for a straight flush draw. Hellmuth called and the turn brought the 4, giving Hellmuth a full four of eights. He began to celebrate but still had to avoid the 5 on the river. The last card was indeed a spade, but the king it wasn’t enough to give Zaki a double up. He was eliminated in second place, earning a career-best payday of $496,801 for his efforts. He now has nearly $4.5 million in recorded tournament earnings after this second-place finish.

Here’s a look at the prizes and ranking points awarded at the final table:

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Winning photo credit: WSOP / Rachel Kay Miller. Ivey photo: PokerGO / Enrique Malfavon.