Phil "Poker Brat" Hellmuth, owner of 13 WSOP bracelets and nearly $18 million in lifetime tournament earnings, failed to show up at the huge $111,111 buy-in WSOP One Drop High Roller event today.
For the first few levels everyone assumed Hellmuth was going to pull his signature late registration.
As registration neared closing players started to wonder if Hellmuth mistakenly thought the event was a 5 p.m. start (like John Juanda).
Registration finally closed, however, and a couple hours later Hellmuth confirmed he was skipping the tournament.
Hellmuth said that while he supported the One Drop charity, he simply wasn’t feeling this particular tournament.
Yep, It's true, I skipped #WSOP One Drop Tourn today. I LOVE "One Drop Charity" and will continue to support it, but wasn't feeling it
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) June 27, 2013Negreanu, Ivey Still in 2013 WSOP One Drop
It’s a surprising decision for Hellmuth considering a high-profile No-Limit Hold’em event with a bracelet on the line seems right up his alley.
It’s even more surprising given the fact Hellmuth made the final table of last year’s even bigger $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop. He finished fourth to collect $2.6 million.
This year’s smaller buy-in $111,111 One Drop event will offer a $4.8 first-place prize.
While Hellmuth skipped the tournament poker other two big stars certainly didn’t. Both Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu were still in the event as of level 8. Follow One Drop live updates here.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com