‘Poker Brat’ eliminated from WSOP Main Event, starts social media war with rival

It was a rough day for Phil Hellmuth at the World Series of Poker Main Event on Wednesday.

Not only was the 17-time WSOP champion eliminated from the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship on Day 3 at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas short of the money, he also lost his high-profile side bet with professional poker player Shaun Deeb.

Then, the player known as the “Poker Brat” started an online firestorm when he attacked the criteria used to determine the WSOP Player of the Year, which was a direct shot at Deeb.

Hellmuth entered Day 3 with a healthy chip stack but didn’t make it to the dinner break. First he lost a big pot against Richard Mullen of Canada that knocked him below 100,000 chips and was sent to the rail by Chi Chen a few hours later in a blind-versus-blind confrontation.

On his final hand, Hellmuth limp-called a 10,000-chip raise by Chen from the big blind, and the two players saw a flop of ace-five-two with two spades. Hellmuth checked and Chen bet 8,000 chips before Hellmuth ripped in his final 67,000 chips.

Chen called with ace-10, while Hellmuth was holding nine-seven of spades for a flush draw. The three of clubs on the turn didn’t help Hellmuth, although a four on the river would have given both players a straight for a chopped pot.

Instead, the final card was the eight of hearts, and Hellmuth quietly left the table. The only player with WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Event titles has not cashed in the Main Event in Las Vegas since 2015.

Hellmuth’s son Phillip III was eliminated earlier in the day before the money bubble burst, ensuring Hellmuth would have to pay up on his bet with Deeb.

Hellmuth put up $14,000 on each of his sons to make the money in the Main Event, and Deeb agreed to match whatever they cashed for in the Main Event. Had the younger Hellmuth won the tournament, Deeb would have been on the hook for $10 million.

Hellmuth’s son Nick was still alive in the Main Event when action paused late Wednesday with 1,390 players remaining, giving the elder Hellmuth a chance to come out ahead on the wager. The top 1,382 finishers make the money and the minimum cash is $15,000.

But that was just the beginning of an ongoing battle between Hellmuth and Deeb that escalated into a widespread debate on social media about the WSOP Player of the Year.

In a video posted on X, Hellmuth said the Player of the Year system is “massive unfair disadvantage” to the average person trying to win Player of the Year when they can’t play in higher buy-in events.

He added that, “If you lose money at WSOP, you should not win Player of the Year.” Some players agreed with Hellmuth that it shouldn’t be a volume award.

That set off Deeb, who is third in the Player of the Year race and won the award in 2025 and 2018. Deeb claimed Hellmuth keeps “moving the goalposts” and designs his schedule to give himself the best chance to win Player of the Year.

Poker pro Daniel Negreanu sided with Deeb and wrote on X that, “The POY isn’t designed for the recreational player who comes out for a few weekends. It is for the hardcore grinders who put in volume and battle it out in a wide range of buy ins.”

The WSOP revamped the scoring system this year, capping the number of cashes that count toward the Player of the Year leaderboard at 15 and also added a $1 million prize pool to the competition. Alex Foxen leads the race, which won’t be decided until WSOP Paradise in December in the Bahamas.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on X.