Phil Hellmuth Busts

I'm not sure why Phil decides it's a good idea to miss the first two hours of play, but that's exactly what he did again this year. Perhaps he enjoys the attention more than the chance to chip up early against some terrible dead money players.

When Phil finally arrived at 2:13pm, he had lost a tenth of his stack. The first hand he played he ran his pocket J's into Randy Jensen's pocket Q's. The second hand he played he ran his pocket K's into pocket A's. And at 2:23pm, we got our first, "You've got to be kidding me!!"

He still had chips and started to build back up, until he ran into a few more hands and found himself short stacked right before the second break. In fact, it was the last hand before they stretched their legs for 20 minutes.

Phil got himself all in with AQ and ran into 77. The board never got higher than an 8 and Phil busted. He seemed as calm as can be expected as he shook the hands of the player who busted him and the others at his table. Unfortunately, some jackass in the crowd chose that point to heckle him.

"You got real class, buddy," Phil told him, as he walked toward the bleachers. There he shook more hands before walking out of the room. I guess there's irony in Phil saying that to someone in the crowd, but this WSOP featured a kinder, gentler Phil. Too bad he showed up so late, otherwise he might still be alive.

| 2006 WSOP