Poker Tournament Results

Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic

T.J. Cloutier

Tournament Report

After chasing tournament chip leader Phil Hellmuth for most of the day, Texan T.J. Cloutier finally took the chip lead at the final table, but then stumbled a couple of times again before eventually winning the $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Cloutier, who has won more money in major poker tournaments than any other player in the history of the game, said, "The only other time Phil and I were heads-up was in the World Series, and he won that one, but now we're 1-1,"said Cloutier. "He's a great playerWe have been good friends for years." The real chip shuffle happened when it was down to Cloutier, runner-up Hellmuth and third place finisher Barry Shulman. After taking the lead from Hellmuth, Cloutier lost a $40,000 pot to Shulman and then another big pot to Hellmuth, dropping to around $25,000 of the total $264,000. But soon after, Hellmuth eliminated Shulman, and the Cloutier-Hellmuth heads-up rematch began with the 38-year-old Hellmuth in command with $202,000 in chips and Cloutier with only $62,000. "Barry played very well, and Phil always plays great,"explained Cloutier. "When it got down to heads-up, I was pretty low on chips, but I started winning the big pots, and Phil was winning the small pots." Hellmuth was struggling in the heads-up match, but nearly made a miraculous comeback. His chip stack was down to the cloth at one point but fought his way back to around $100,000 before finally succumbing to the 63-year-old four-time WSOP bracelet winner. Hellmuth, the 1989 WSOP world champion, added, "I thought Barry played very well, and T.J. always plays great poker. I wish I could have won it, but I like T.J. a lot, and I'm happy for him. It was a great match." Cloutier earned $51,216 and the first place trophy while Hellmuth of Palo Alto, CA, took $29,449 for second, and Shulman (Las Vegas) got $15,365 for third, followed by fourth place David Rabbi (Las Vegas) $8,963, and fifth place Jim McManus (Kenilworth, IL) $7,042. Robert Williamson (Dallas, TX) was sixth, George Paravoliasakis (Athens, Greece) was seventh, Humberto Brenes (San Jose, Costa Rica) finished eighth, and Roger Easterday (Las Vegas) was ninth. A total prize pool of $128,040 was generated by the field of 88 players. JIM SHERWOOD