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WSOP What to Watch For: Thursday, June 10th

Nine players will try to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, and Hellmuth’s latest tirade. Check out the stories to watch for Thursday at the World Series of Poker.

SNG for the TOC
Perhaps the most anticipated sit-and-go satellite in history will take place today.

Nine players will play for one spot today in the WSOP’s Tournament of Champions, a 27-player freeroll for a million dollars.

The players taking part include Tom “Durr” Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElKy” Grospellier, Gus Hansen, actor Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree and Paul Wasicka. None of the players are eligible to be voted into the ToC, which was open only to bracelet winners. Mizrachi won the $50K Players Championship earlier in this WSOP, but that happened too late to be included in the voting, obviously.

The lineup is a stacked one, and whoever wins it will have earned their spot. Hansen has won three World Poker Tour titles, Dwan is one of the most feared cash-game players in the world, and Sorel Mizzi is perhaps the hottest player anywhere in the world right now.

The event will start at noon Vegas time.

Hellmuth’s latest tilt session
Phil Hellmuth was supposed to be turning over a new leaf this year, attempting to get away from his “Poker Brat” image. That’s apparently over with the WSOP about a quarter of the way over.

Hellmuth was reportedly on the warpath on Wednesday in the $5K event, which he cashed. Here’s an excerpt from a BLUFF Magazine online report from the scene:

…Phil Hellmuth was continually mixing it up with a number of players who he felt had no concept of the game. A player remaining quiet two seats to the right, later recognized as Ryan Schmidt of Anchorage, Alaska, was verbally assaulted by Hellmuth all night long. Schmidt raised the Poker Brat multiple times on his big blind, and Hellmuth grew angry. First, Hellmuth asked Schmidt if he was from Northern Europe, and then predicted he was from Copenhagen. When Schmidt did not respond, Hellmuth continued his verbal assault with lines such as, “You’re definitely not from here, because no one in Las Vegas plays this many hands -you don’t get poker,” and so forth.

When he busted on a coinflip, a tirade was unleashed on the player who knocked him out, according to reports.

Hellmuth is one of the most well-known poker players in the world, and the leader in all-time bracelets with 11.

But he leaves a lot to be desired as an ambassador for the game at its most high-profile gathering. The latest episode appears to have been worse than Hellmuth’s standard fare. At some point (perhaps today?) is the poker community going to tell him to just knock it off? And will some bad press from this incident have any effect on him, or does he simply ascribe to the idea that there’s no such thing as bad publicity?

On deck today
There’s a lot going on besides the ToC qualifier today.

A bracelet will be awarded in Event No. 17, $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em. Two events will continue into day two, including the $10K 2-7 draw lowball event.

Two events start today for the non no-limit hold’em players: Event No. 20, $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, and Event No. 21, $1,500 Seven Card Stud.

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