WSOP Update: Phil Hellmuth Wins His 12th Bracelet

June 11th, 2012 | 11:26 pm

Over the last few days, Phil Hellmuth won his 12th WSOP bracelet, Matt Matros won his 3rd in 3 years, and Andy Frankenberger defeated Phil Ivey heads-up to win his 2nd.

By Matt Kaufman, Rakeback.com Poker News Editor

Sunday night at the World Series of Poker (qualify before it's too late!) was wildly eventful. Before we turn our focus to why, let's take a look at the WSOP winners since our last update:

• Event #14 - $1,500 NLHE Shootout - Brandon Schaefer for $311,174
• Event #15 - $5,000 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo - Adam Friedman for $269,037
• Event #16 - $1,500 NLHE 6-Handed - Matt Matros for $454,835
• Event #17 - $10,000 PLHE - Andy Frankenberger for $445,899
• Event #18 - $2,500 Razz - Phil Hellmuth for $182,793

In Event #16, Matt Matros was the last player standing to earn his 3rd WSOP bracelet in 3 years. Last year he won the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em event, and in 2010 he won a $1,500 Limit Hold'em tournament. This victory truly cements Matros' place among the elite tournament players in the world... not that there was much doubt about that before.

The last few tables of Event #17 were full of A-list poker stars. The final two tables included Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, David Benyamine, Antonio Esfandiari, Hoyt Corkins, and Shaun Deeb. The biggest name at the table, however, was Phil Ivey.

Despite Ivey's seemingly superhuman abilities when shorthanded in tournaments, he fell just short of his 9th WSOP bracelet because another poker pro - Andy Frankenberger - managed to beat him heads-up to claim a 2nd bracelet of his own.

The most historic occurrence of the last few days is that Phil Hellmuth has extended his all-time WSOP victories record by winning Event #18 and securing his 12th bracelet. After coming so close last year with three second place finishes, Hellmuth finally booked the win this year over a final table that included Barry Greenstein, Scott Fischman, and Brandon Cantu. The Razz title marks his first bracelet in a non-Hold'em event.

Hellmuth has 89 cashes in World Series events, and has made 49 final tables. He currently ranks fourth on the all-time money list, with over $13m in gross tournament earnings, and of course leads the bracelet race by a wide margin. Congrats Phil!