WSOP Day 21 - Helmuth Denied

The final day of Event #33: $10,000 Stud 8 or Better Championship had a star studded final day with David Benyamine, Ted Forrest and Phil Helmuth all making the final table.

All eyes were on Helmuth as he battled his way through the final table to get heads up with eventual champion Eric Rodawig. Rodawig went into heads-up with a large chip lead and managed to deny Helmuth his 12th WSOP bracelet in the process of winning his first and $442k.

There is some good news for Helmuth as he now tops the WSOP Player of the Year standings, just edging out Sam Stein and John Juanda. He'll need to work hard to stay up near the top but he definitely has a shot, and he'll almost certainly care about this.

Event #32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em also awarded a bracelet on day 21 and Kirk Caldwell was the man to take it down. Caldwell brings the tally of Canadian players to win a WSOP bracelet to four.

31 year old Caldwell won his entry to the $1,500 event by winning a local satellite tournament and this win is not only his first cash at the WSOP, but his first ever event. This is the stuff dreams are made of for amateur players and Caldwell seems deserving of the win - he's even offered to back the player he beat heads up for the seat into the WSOP Main Event. Some of the $668k prize money will be split between Caldwell's friends back home in Ontario as part of a deal they made for the tournament.

Let's hope some of the bigger media and reporting sites run with the story a little, as this is the kind of thing the WSOP needs!

It looks like the cash game action is picking up as a few high stakes regulars (Daniel Cates and Brian Hastings, among others) have Tweeted recently about the games. It looks like at least a 500/1k is running at the Rio. Check out WSOP Live Action to keep an eye on what's running.

The WSOP numbers in general continue to look healthy according to wsop.com. Total participation is up over 10% and prize money up over 8% compared to 2010. It's hard to compare turnouts and prizepools on a like-for-like basis as the schedules are a little different, but things certainly aren't as bad as some feared post Black Friday. It'll be worth checking back in a week or so to see if the numbers hold up, and we still have that mega barometer of poker economy health yet to come.

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