Yorky Pud

Phil Hellmuth has had a rather amazing World Series of Poker but his Main Event, his last chance this year of winning a WSOP bracelet on Las Vegas soil, almost came to a premature end without him even playing a single hand on Day 2.

Hellmuth participated in Day 1c which meant that he and 2,030 others, who had survived Day 1a and 1c, were due to play in Monday's Day 2a. Still with me? Good. But for some reason the 11-time bracelet winner got it into his head that he was playing Day 2b and he failed to turn up to the Rio on time.

The poker community was first informed of Hellmuth's absence via Mike “The Mouth” Matusow's Twitter feed, with him revealing, [sic] “@phil_hellmuth is such a idiot hes getting blinded off has 5k left has his phoneoff and a do not disturb on his phone at hotel” before adding “how can one be this dumb.”

Although Matusow and Hellmuth have frequently clashed on televised poker cash games and tournaments the two are good friends off the felt and it appears Hellmuth owes Matusow a decent percentage of any winnings after he went to great lengths to contact “The Poker Brat” and get him to the Rio. [sic] “sorry @phil_hellmuth that you4 wsop comes to a nd this way I even got them to ring inside your room with a do not disturb on it,” tweeted a resigned  Matusow but whatever he did obviously worked as shortly after Hellmuth's Twitter feed burst into action.

“Security broke into my room, “I'm like, “What's going on?!?” SGuard says, “You're playing in the World Series of Poker today,”” before adding, “I jump out of bed, dress, and run down to my car. Didn't know you could drive 75 on side roads!! Thought I played Day 2 Tuesday...” How wrong he was.!

Hellmuth eventually took his seat an hour and 40 minutes late and informed his fans, and haters, that his 11,800 stack had been whittled down to just 6,975 chips. British pro and double UKIPT winner Nick Abou Risk mocked Hellmuth by tweeting, “Hellmuth just showed up. Already 3x'ing w 12bb...” referring to Hellmuth's unorthodox style of play. Howver unorthodox Hellmuth's style seems to be it has certainly been effective during his WSOP career and yesterday was no different because he ended the day with an impressive 64,900 chips, which is way off the pace for being chip leader but considering he eventually started the day with 6,975 chips and was playing to 250/500/50a blinds then it is a great achievement.

Day 2b starts today at 1200 noon (Las Vegas time) and will see the 2,490 survivors from Days 1b and 1d take to the felt. Whoever makes it through Day 2b will then return to the Rio on Thursday along with those who navigated through Day 2b for the official Day 3.