It’s not a World Series of Poker without a good Phil Hellmuth rant, and we got a classic on Thursday near the bubble of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Day 3 had been going well for Hellmuth up to this point — he even managed to knock out his buddy and defending champ Daniel Negreanu. You can watch that bustout hand below.
It started going sideways in a round of limit hold ‘em. After Hellmuth raised 
from the hijack, Justin Liberto defended 
in the big blind.
On the 
flop, Liberto checked, and Hellmuth quickly bet 30,000. Liberto came back with a check-raise to 60,000, which Hellmuth called.
The turn brought the 
and Liberto started with a check again. Hellmuth continued his story, betting the card for the bigger value of 60,000, and Liberto called. The 
completed the board, and after Liberto checked a final time, Hellmuth shut down and checked back.
Liberto tabled his winning two pair, which got the Poker Brat out of his seat as he flicked at his cards before mucking them and starting to steam.
“Ten f***ing five. How f***ing bad are they at f***ing limit hold ‘em? You’re the guy that buried me with jack-eight earlier today. Ten-five, nice f***ing call.”
As Liberto gathered his newfound chips with a smile, he replied, “Philly, what’d you have for dinner, buddy?”
“I would never have called that hand in a million years, but I came to win," Hellmuth snapped back. "You won the max. Congratulations.”
After a few muffled comments on Liberto’s play, he continued with some more specific complaints.
“You win all these weird pots against me, and you’re just gonna blow it all so quickly. It’s so frustrating. Watching all these idiots give their money away, it’s so frustrating to me. I don’t blame you, you can’t help yourself, you don’t understand yet. In five years, you might learn how to play limit hold ‘em.”
Hellmuth loses a chunk more
Hellmuth was left with 325,000 after the pot, and he’d soon lose more in a hand of no-limit 2-7 single draw.
After Hellmuth raised to 30,000 on the button with an unknown hand, Albert Daher three-bet from the small blind with 
. Hellmuth called, leaving himself just 130,000.
Daher stood pat, while Hellmuth broke his hand and drew one. Daher then checked his hand, leaving it up to Hellmuth whether to commit his final chips or not after taking a look at his new card.
He elected to check, and when he saw Daher’s hand, another f-bomb was released from Hellmuth’s arsenal as he mucked his hand, having missed what was revealed to be a draw to a nine.
“180,000 with the jack-ten. F***ing Albert.”
Hellmuth stood again, then walked behind his chair as he continued with another monologue.
“Motherf***ers. Don’t f***ing understand. These are the f***ing players I go broke to. 180 with jack-ten. F***ing 180 with jack-ten.”
After a bit more to himself, Hellmuth declared himself unapologetic. “I’m not sorry for any of it. What I say is the truth. They play way too fast and don’t understand it. They don’t even understand.”
Hellmuth spins it back up, crashes back down
A double-up got Hellmuth back on more steady ground, and his smile came back after the final 21 players were re-drawn to three tables. He sat at about 600,000 before sliding back to just over 100,000 with 20 left.
At this stage of the tournament, play was paused at the two outer tables to even out the number of hands played by the feature table. During this unscheduled break, Hellmuth was seen chatting with Daher in a friendly manner, even offering an apologetic fist bump.
He couldn't find a second spin-up, though, and went out just ahead of the bubble.
Hellmuth got his last 25,000 chip in on 3rd street, showing a 
versus Chris Vitch and Albert Daher. Vitch would bet Daher out of the pot on 5th street after Daher paired his door card and then picked up paint.
Hellmuth appeared in great shape to stay alive, tabling [9x,7x / 6x,5x,7x] versus Vitch's [8x,6x / 3x,kx,tx].
On 6th Street, though, Vitch improved to a ten, picking up a , while Hellmuth made two pair with another .
Vitch's ten-eight would be what Hellmuth would have to beat on the end, but after peeling a three-across, it was another , giving him a third pair and ending his day.
Hellmuth wished his tablemates good luck and then quietly exited the feature table. Benny Glaser followed him out, and the final 18 players are now on the stone bubble.
We'll bring you a full recap of Day 3 when play finishes for the night.
