In his last hand of the 2008 WSOP, Phil Hellmuth was under the gun and fired his entire remaining 400K stack into the middle of the felt. Action folded around to one of his opponents, Andrew Rosskamm, who thought for a moment before calling. As the audience around the featured table jumped to their feet in equal parts of dread and anticipation, the two players flipped over their cards. Hellmuth held {Ah}{Qd} to Rosskamm's pocket jacks. Phil was in deep trouble, however, when the dealer flopped {Kd}{4h}{3h}. However, the {Th} on the turn gave Phil both the gutshot straight draw and a nut flush draw. But the {2s} on the river bricked out for Phil, who was eliminated in 45th place for $154,400. As he headed for the exit, the eleven-time bracelet-winner and Poker Brat extraordinaire was swarmed by media and fans to capture his copious commentary. Unfortunately for Phil, this was one bullet he couldn't dodge, baby.
Shortly before Phil's exit from the poker barracks, Adam "Roothlus" Levy also met the same demise. Though he has performed exceptionally well in this year's WSOP with four cashes in preliminary events, his deep run stalled when he was eliminated in 48th Place for $135,100. Levy nursed a short stack for nearly the entire day. In his last hand, Adam re-raised his opponent all-in preflop with A-T. The dealer ran out the board with {10d}{6s}{3c}{3h}{2s}, but Adam couldn't beat his opponent's pocket kings.
Leading the UB Army after the elimination of these two soldiers was Tiffany "Hot Chips" Michelle, who was looking to follow paths of glory all the way to the final table. Featured for much of the day in the ESPN battledome, Tiffany Michelle played extremely aggressive poker, outranking her opponents in stripes with a stack of nearly 3.5 million chips to start the day. She bulldozed many an opponent over the course of four 90-minute levels today, drawing the attention of fans and cameras alike. Sporting UB patches and fly stiletto boots, Tiffany Michelle did indeed live up to her name as her chips ran hot and she ended the day with 9.9 million -- good enough for a third-place start in tomorrow's final table quest.
Also at the ESPN featured table, sitting directly across from Tiffany Michelle, was Garrett "GBecks" Beckman. However, could not hang the "Mission Accomplished" banner and went down guns-a'blazin'. Late in the day, Beckman doubled up when it folded around to him and he shoved all-in for his remaining 870K. One opponent called and everyone else folded. His opponent turned over pocket ladies and Beckman was dominated, showing down K-J. The dealer laid out J-4-4 and Garrett picked up two more outs to take down the pot. The J on the turn put Beckman in the lead in the hand and the K on the river gave Garrett the full house; he doubled up to 1.95 million.
However, in an unfortunate turn of events for the UB qualifier, the last hand at the featured table made him head for the hills. Garrett got it all in on the turn with the 6-7-T-9 board that showed three clubs. He held A-Q for the nut flush draw, but his opponent held Q-8 for the made straight. The river bricked out and Garrett was sent home in 31st Place, receiving $193,000 for his efforts.
Congratulations to all UB players for their success in the 2008 WSOP. Tomorrow's 12PM Day 7 start will see the remaining 27 players armed to the teeth in battle for a spot at the final table, the coveted WSOP gold bracelet, and more than $9 million in bounty.
