WSOP Europe lands in Prague from March 31–April 12 with 15 bracelets on the line, including the €5,300 Main Event. Before the action begins, we’re counting down the greatest moments in the festival’s history. Want to play the Main Event for free? Enter our draw now.
Phil Hellmuth made history at the 2012 WSOP Europe in Cannes, winning his 13th bracelet and becoming the first player to win WSOP Main Events on two continents.
Just four months after winning his 12th bracelet in Las Vegas, Hellmuth bested a field of 420 to take the €1,022,376 first prize – a victory he described at the time as humbling.
“I don’t say this often, but I am truly humbled by this,” Hellmuth said straight after his win. “This is one of the most prestigious titles in poker, and to get this one, it’s right up there with the [1989] World Championship.”
He had to navigate a stacked final table that included Joseph Cheong and Jason Mercier, but Hellmuth had a secret weapon on his side – white magic.
When the final hand was dealt, Antonio Esfandiari, sitting in the live commentary booth, was both impressed and bewildered.
“The guy just wins,” he said. "13 bracelets – that’s just incredible." In the same breath, Esfandiari admitted he was baffled by Hellmuth’s ability to deliver such a result.
“There’s no questioning that Phil Hellmuth can play poker – as much as we are confused and baffled by his ways.”
Hellmuth’s white magic
We asked Hellmuth where the victory ranks among his 17 WSOP bracelets. He puts it second, behind his 1989 Main Event win.
And was this the birth of his famous white magic?
“I invented the concept of 'white magic' a few years before that,” Hellmuth tells us. "But it was the best tournament I ever played in my life because I used… white magic,” he adds.
“I bluffed hundreds of times preflop and postflop. My instincts were 100% spot on. I seemed to know when my opponents were weak and when they were strong.”
Hellmuth also let us in on a secret.
“No one will believe this,” he says. “I didn’t look at my hole cards for hours at a time. They raised, I looked at them – and if I thought they couldn’t call a big reraise, then bam, I made it.”
There’s another twist to the story. According to Hellmuth, runner-up, Sergei Branov, predicted the result from Day 1.
“He told me I would finish first and he would finish second,” Hellmuth says. "After Day 1 ended, Sergei found me and informed me he was top five in chips and that I would win. Same after Day 2. Finally, when we both made the final 6, I began to believe him!
“I told everyone in the press what Sergei had told me. I told the TV folks what he told me. I told everyone over and over! Somehow it never became a story. I guess the world wasn’t ready to hear it.”
World, consider yourself told.
Hellmuth will be playing the 2026 WSOPE Main Event in Prague. Can he roll out the white magic again and capture bracelet number 18? We’ll be watching closely from the floor at the Hilton Prague.
