WSOP 2024 Day 39 – Phil ‘Kung Fu’ Hellmuth Enters Main Event

It was a case of Phil Hellmuth in, Dan Bilzerian out and a slew of aces versus kings bustouts as Day 1c of the 55th World Series of Poker Main Event offered drama aplenty.

HellmuthCatesNguyen1
Hellmuth, Cates and Nguyen (courtesy of WSOP)

Event #81: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship

It was the turn of Johnny Chan to do the shuffle up and deal duties yesterday, the 1987 and 1988 champ offering up “Good luck to you all – let’s get lucky!” 

Bilzerian Busts in Two Hands

One player who clearly decided luck was his best, or only, hope of winning was Dan Bilzerian. The self-styled “King of Instagram”, notorious for his misogynistic off-felt shenanigans as well as claims of winning $60million at poker, lasted just two hands.

The first saw him triple-barrel bluff with ten-eight against aces, Scotland’s Derek Reid later telling reporters: “I just didn’t think he had it, so I called.”

Bilzerian then spunked the last of his chips on a random queen-five shove from the big blind against a raise and a call. Jonathan Dwek hit a flush and it was Bye-Bye Bilzerian.

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Hellmuth’s Grand Entrance

One famous name out, and another even more famous in, as Phil Hellmuth appeared with his annual grand entrance. Having already dressed up as Thor, Darth Vader, Gandalf the White, Julius Caesar and Poseidon over the years, 2024 was time for some martial arts mayhem.

Flanked by Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Scotty Nguyen and a host of others, big Phil “danced” his way to the feature table to the strains of Carl Douglas’ hit, Kung Fu Fighting.

Fast as lightning it wasn’t, cheesy and typically Phil Hellmuth it certainly was.

Famous names

With the amateur dramatics out of the way, some actual poker was played and Hellmuth and a host of other well-known names made it through  to Day 2abc, including:

  • Former main Event champs Chris Moneymaker, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, Robert Varkonyi, Scott Blumstein, and Damian Salas.
  • Elite highstakes MTT pros Justin Bonomo, Chris Brewer, Adrian Mateos, Ike Haxton, and Santosh Suvarna.
  • Mike “the Mouth” Matusow, Poker Fraud Alert founder Todd Witteles, and former soccer pro Max Kruse.
GoldME1c
Jamie Gold (courtesy of WSOP)

AA vs KK bustouts

Those who busted include Martin Kabrhel, Shaun Deeb, Chino Rheem, and Chris Moorman, as well as David Moses and Ondrej Drozd. The latter two hit the headlines after busting in dreaded aces vs kings showdowns on the first and second hands of the day.

Moses was first to go when his aces were cracked, despite turning trips. The river filled his opponents straight and Moses went off in search of some new commandments. Drozd, meanwhile, had the kings but alas no miracle appeared to save his Main Event.

Robert Pardo bagged the biggest stack of the day, with the final starting flight, Day 1d, today. 

Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts

RankPlayerCountryChip Count
1Robert PardoUSA441,000
2Zyad QasemUSA390,300
3Leonard HerrmannGermany306,000
4Ardit KurshumiUSA297,400
5Colin BeveridgeUSA295,500
6Mohammed NuwwarahUSA273,300
7David SimonUSA269,800
8Manuel PochatArgentina255,200
9Royce CohenUSA254,500
10Patrice BrandtGermany254,400

 There was, remarkably, some other poker being played in the Horseshoe and Paris Casinos.

Francis Anderson bagged Event #80: $800 Independence Day Celebration No-Limit Hold’em for a $501,040 score, while today sees the start of Event #82: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em.

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Professional Poker Journalist
An avid poker player, he dreams of one day playing the WSOP Main Event and has promised himself he will fold aces and kings if he gets them on the first hand to avoid front-page headlines.
Filed Under: WSOP 2024 Live Poker News Poker News

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