There is only way to go when you’re at the top, as Phil Hellmuth discovered to his chagrin yesterday on Day 4 of the biggest poker tournament of 2007.
The self-styled ‘poker brat’ started Day Four of the WPT World Championship in pole position, leading the remaining pack of 54 players with a healthy $1.8 million stack of chips, and twenty years of experience at the top of the tournament game. Sometimes however, that’s not quite enough, and Hellmuth found himself floundering as the day wore on.
Most of the damage was done in the space of a few hands, when Hellmuth doubled up David Levi and then Sorel Mizzi in quick succession. In the first instance Hellmuth called Levi’s all-in on a king high flop with K-Q, but lost out to A-K. Then the 1989 WSOP champ made a strange move against internet legend Mizzi, calling a bet on the turn when the board showed A-9-4-A and saying “I need a jack!” Well sure enough the next card out was a jack, and Hellmuth called quickly when Sorel Mizzi pushed all-in. Mizzi flipped over pocket nines for a full house, and Hellmuth quickly mucked, giving no hint as to what hand he could have had that a jack would have helped.
Meanwhile another WSOP champion, the 2001 winner Juan Carlos Mortensen, was enjoying the kind of day Phil Hellmuth would have given his right arm for. Mortensen, already a member of the exclusive club Hellmuth so yearns to join, that of players who have won both a WPT title and the WSOP main-event, won the biggest pot of the day when his set of sevens held up against Raymond Davis’s flush draw, raking in a monster $2.8 million pot.
It was also a good day for Kirk Morrison, who won the following crazy hand just before the end of play. After limping from middle position Morrison and Tomas Wahlroos both call a $100,000 bet from Can Kim Hua to see a flop of 8h-7c-5d. Wahlroos then leads out for $200,000, Morrison flat calls, and Can Kim Hua raises to $600,000. With Wahlroos folding Morrison then moves all-in over the top, and after a period of contemplation from Hua, flips up his cards, the 8d-7d, claiming Hua has called. But the dealer says he didn’t hear anything, and despite Wahlroos backing Morrison’s claim that Hua has called, the floor sides with the dealer and Hua is allowed to make a decision. He ponders for some time, and then folds pocket nines. Morrison, despite the controversy, rakes in a huge pot to take his stack to $2.9 million.
When all was said and done however, this day really belonged to Paul Lee. Lee started the day in 25th place, but began a dramatic move up the leaderboard when he flopped a set of jacks against Loi Phan, and managed to get Phan to call all-on the turn with just top pair. That win put Lee up to around the $1.3 million mark, and the Los Angeles resident never looked back, eventually ending the day as chip leader with $3.6 million.
Here are the chip counts going into Day Five:
1 - Paul Lee - $3,601,000
2 - Kirk Morrison - $2,980,000
3 - Juan Carlos Mortensen - $2,429,000
4 - Sorel Mizzi - $2,256,000
5 - Thomas Wahlroos - $1,847,000
6 - Benjamin Johnson - $1,280,000
7 - Thien “Tim” Phan - $1,273,000
8 - Scott Fischman - $1,268,000
9 - David Levi - $1,258,000
10 - Guy Laliberte - $1,232,000
16th – Can Kim Hua - $760,000
18th – Phil Hellmuth - $738,000
20th – Paul Wasicka - $581,000
23rd – Roland De Wolfe - $460,000
27 players remain