Phil Hellmuth Part of Five-Way Chop at Mega Millions XXI

Poker legend Phil Hellmuth banked more than $95,000 after a five-way deal in the Mega Millions XXI. Hellmuth finished fifth in the 21st edition of the Mega Millions event at The Bicycle Casino in California.

Mega Millions XXI Final Table Result

Place	Player	Prize
1	Triet Nguyen	$169,549**
2	Jose Mendoza	$145,266**
3	Joo Park	$138,985**
4	Vuong Do	$92,825*
5	Phil Hellmuth	$95,693*
6	Todd Kriesman	$42,745
7	Alex Tran	$33,670
8	Eric Wu	$26,390
9	Pogos Simityan	$20,240

*reflects a five-way deal
** reflects a three-handed deal

The Mega Millions is a unique tournament that saw 13 starting flights take place throughout August. Buy-ins on each Day 1 ranged from $160 to $550 and attracted thousands of players. It was possible to buy in direct to Day 2 for $3,700. The $1 million guarantee was blown out of the water with a prize pool of $1,647,125 created.

Hellmuth was bar far the biggest name to navigate their way to the nine-handed final table. “The Poker Brat” has amassed $23,001,232 in live tournament winnings during a glistening career, including a record 15 World Series of Poker bracelets.

Mega Millions XXI Final Table Seat Draw

Seat	Player	Chips
1	Triet Nguyen	14,860,000
2	Jose Mendoza	15,300,000
3	Eric Wu	13,825,000
4	Vuong Do	7,200,000
5	Pogos Simityan	3,000,000
6	Todd Kriesman	10,745,000
7	Joo Park	3,200,000
8	Alex Tran	11,525,000
9	Phil Hellmuth	5,575,000

Pogos Simityan was the shortest stack going into the final table and was also the first casualty. It was a typical coinflip that sent Simityan to the rail in ninth-place. Simityan moved all in with ace-king and Alex Tran called with pocket sevens. A king on the flop gifted Simityan the lead, but the board four-flushed with clubs and Tran completed an unlikely flush.

Eighth-place went to Eric Wu who secured his largest live poker tournament score. Wu bet 1,500,000 on the river of the Qs-9s-7c-3c-5c only to see Tran move all-in. A couple of minutes passed before Wu called and turned over ace-queen for top pair. Tran flipped over Kc-Tc for a flush. Game over for Wu.

Tran lost a massive pot at the hands of Triet Nguyen with trip queen against a full house. He busted soon after. His remaining chips went into the middle holding pocket eights. Joo Park looked him up with ace-jack and flopped a jack. No further eights appeared and Tran went from hero to zero in the space of a few hands.

The final six became five with the elimination of Todd Kriesman. Hellmuth was the man who did the damage. Kriesman shoved from the cutoff with king-nine and Hellmuth called from the small blind with ace-jack. An ace was the door card before Hellmuth improved to two pair on the turn, leaving Kriesman drawing dead.

Deal Struck; Hellmuth Busts

A deal was struck between the final five players. $60,000 was left for the eventual champion, plus a $5,000 WPT Main Event seat added by the organizers.

Hellmuth was the first player to bust after the deal. He first sucked out on Park when his ace-queen came from behind to improve against the dominating ace-king. A ten on the turn gave Park a straight. After burning card, the dealer put a three on the river and Hellmuth was no more.

Each of the players gained more elbow room when Vuong Do made an ill-timed bluff. A 9h-7d-3d flop in a three-bet pot saw Nguyen lead for 4,000,000 and call when Do moved all in for 8,500,000. Do showed king-ten and Nguyen ten-nine. Both the turn and river bricked and Do busted.

That was the final elimination despite three players remaining. Nguyen held a substantial lead but opted to take a deal that saw the remaining trio shared the $60,000 set aside earlier. He had to give each of his opponents an additional $1,000 in exchange for the $5,000 WPT Main Event seat.

This was Nguyen’s largest haul by far, besting the $78,222 Nguyen won in October 2018, also at The Bike.

WPT Legends of Poker

Attention now turns to the $5,000 buy-on WPT Legends of Poker, which runs August 31st to September 4th. Some of the world’s best poker tournament players are set to compete for a slice of the $2 million guaranteed prize pool.

One player who is guaranteed to be competing is Nguyen courtesy of his free seat won in the Mega Millions XXI. Everyone also expects Hellmuth to take a seat as he attempts to win his first WPT title.

Artur Papazyan is the reigning champion having won the Legends of Poker Main Event in 2017. The tournament did not run in 2018 as it made was for the WPT 500. Papazyan defeated, ironically, Hellmuth heads-up t secure the $668,692 top prize. $364,370 is the consolation prize Hellmuth secured.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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