Mclean Karr, who I had previously reported as coming back from just 10 chips to reach the final table of the Shooting Star Bay 101 tourney, wrote his Cinderella storybook ending last weekend, when he took it down and put on his $878,500 glass slipper. Along the way, he eliminated pros Erik Seidel, Greg Mueller, and “Miami” John Cernuto for an extra $15,000 in bounties at the price of an upscale used car. This, however, wasn’t the main attraction.
No stranger to stealing the spotlight from those who rightfully deserve it, Phil Hellmuth was, for good reason, toted as the favorite entering the six-handed final table even at second in chips. It only took 41 hands before he clashed all-in against then chip leader Andy Seth. Hellmuth flipped over QQ, Seth AJs. The flop came K-6-5, a perfect scenario for Hellmuth’s ladies. The turn brought the 10 as well as oohs and ahhs in the hopes of witnessing the patented Hellmuth explosion with two more outs in Seth’s favor. The river hit and the crowd erupted like Vesuvius, as the improbable A felted the “Poker Brat”, knocking him out in 6th place. Hellmuth just sat speechless like a Pompeii local, in complete shock of the doom impending on his ego.
Disbelief flooded the tournament area, as a dismayed Hellmuth exited stage left, collapsing to his knees for a solid 2 minutes looking like he was about to commit hari-kari. While the following fan video is the quality of the Zapruder film or the first yeti sighting, it serves its purpose. By purpose, I mean it makes you feel better about yourself at the expense of Phil’s overwhelming display of self-pity.
