“You never know what will happen because the blinds are going to be big tomorrow,” Hellmuth told PokerListings.com moments after the final table was set.
“I might have to win a pot with ace-queen or two nines or two eights but if I win a couple I’m going to have a real shot because I’ve got 12 bracelets and I’m not afraid to win,” explained Hellmuth.
“I’d love to win $18 million. I’m not afraid to win it. And I’d love to win my 13th bracelet and I’m not afraid to win it,” he said.
Hellmuth enters the final table in fifth with just under 11 million in chips, trailing leaders Antonio Esfandiari and Sam Trickett who have roughly four times as many chips.
Hellmuth was the very last player to get a seat in the world’s first $1 million buy-in tournament, making a deal to win the satellite held at the Aria the night before the Big One kicked off.
Now, with eight players remaining, Hellmuth is guaranteed $1.2 million but has his sights set much higher.
With $13.47 million in career earnings already Hellmuth will put an absolute stranglehold on the all-time money list if he places in the top two spots.
While Hellmuth said he is confident going into the final table, he knows anything can happen.
“Look I have 11 million and there are some great players down there so I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s not like I had a vision. All I know is I need to play great,” said Hellmuth.
“I blew the last No-Limit tournament I was deep in. It was the first event of the Series and I popped out and took the chip lead and had everyone talking but I made some mistakes so I wasn’t going to let that happen in this event,” he said.
Here are the official final table chip counts:
1. Antonio Esfandiari - 39,925,000 2. Sam Trickett - 37,000,000 3. Guy Laliberté - 21,700,000 4. Brian Rast - 11,350,000 5. Phil Hellmuth - 10,925,000 6. David Einhorn - 8,375,000 7. Richard Yong - 7,475,000 8. Bobby Baldwin - 7,150,000
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In the meantime check out our full rundown of the biggest final table in poker history.
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