Three Players Not Named Phil Won Gold on WSOP Day 12

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on December 15th, 2021

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Harsh headline? Not even within striking distance of the harsh treatment Phil Hellmuth applied to his competitors at the Seven Card Stud Championship final table. I’ll opine more on that at the end of this piece.

On a positive note, three players won 2021 WSOP bracelets on Day 12. Vladimir Peck and DJ Alexander each claimed their first piece of WSOP gold, and Anthony Zinno earned his third. It was an exciting day for them, as well as the 20 players who bagged chips in the Millionaire Maker.

Let’s take a quick look at the results of Day 12.

Event 17: $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker

The action started with 5,326 in the tournament, though only 170 of them made their way to Day 3. And when that was over, only 27 put their names on bags of chips that will carry them into Day 4. A couple of the survivors have won bracelets before, though none as many as Michael Gathy, who has four of them. Each of the remaining players will be fighting it out on the felt today to claim this piece of gold that comes with a $1M check.

 

Event 18: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball

It took an extra day to find the champion in this event, as Vladimir Peck and Venkata Tayi returned to continue their heads-up match on Monday. The two players still battled for about an hour before Peck emerged victorious. The 44-year-old software engineer who plays poker mostly on a recreational basis lives on the East Coast. Peck told PokerNews:

“This is fun and reminds me more of playing poker as a kid, where it was essentially Dealer’s Choice. … The no-limit game are fun and big, and I will play some of those as well. … Honestly, I learned so much in just those three days because there were a lot of very good players in this tournament.”

 

Event 19: $10K Seven-Card Stud Championship

This championship event started with a star-studded final table on its third day of play. PokerGO streamed the action as Phil Hellmuth chased his 16^th gold bracelet, Anthony Zinno worked for his third, and Hall of Fame member Jack McClelland went for his first. The table didn’t lack talent, but it was Zinno who outlasted them all to win his third. A grateful Zinno spoke to PokerNews after the win:

“It’s unreal because stud is one of the games that I’ve only recently been working on. Some of the best stud players in the world were in the field. … What an honor. … It’s very important to me to prove to myself that the hard work I’ve been putting in the mixed games pays off. … When I was finishing law school and decided I wanted to play poker for a living, my mom and sister were supportive from Day 1. I’ll never forget that. Having the support system is awesome. It gives you that rush, that confidence when you’re playing. It’s really nice.”

 

Congrats to @AntZinno on bracelet #3! A great guy and a class act https://t.co/i8j2dLo3fp

— Mickey Doft (@mrdoft) October 12, 2021

Event 20: $1K NLHE Flip & Go

This was a relatively fast-moving tournament. The first day pulled players through a luck-filled single hand of poker to flip for a seat in the money. When those winners finally took their seats, though, the action moved along at a more normal clip. And on the second day of play, DJ Alexander won his first piece of WSOP gold. He shared his thoughts with PokerNews:

“It’s awesome! It might not look like it, but I’m obviously happy. I’ve been here before, but it feels great to get over the hump.”

 

I enjoyed writing about DJ Alexander (@_HERfavoriteDJ) and his poker story. He's a guy who has stayed on the grind, put in the work, and is having results. I highly admire what he's done and have no doubt bigger things are in store. https://t.co/gqUxygWxlP pic.twitter.com/E4MyCNR1DZ

— Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) February 28, 2019

Event 21: $1,500 Mixed Omaha

It is rare that a player holds a chip lead on Day 1 and Day 2 of a tournament, but Scott Abrams is that player. He leads the final 27 players, though he has players aiming for his chips, players like Ryan Laplante, Ari Engel, and Daniel Negreanu. They will play to a winner today.

 

Event 22: $1K/$10K NLHE Ladies Championship

How are there two buy-ins for the same event? It started years ago when men decided that women couldn’t just have something for themselves and insisted on playing. The WSOP figured out a way around it by making the tournament a $10K buy-in event. The kicker is that women receive a discount and can buy in for just $1K.

One man appears to have bought in to this year’s Ladies Championship. Tom Hammers claimed that he planned to donate any winnings from the event to charities that support women. His wife and daughter also played. Somehow, though, Tom couldn’t figure out how to simply respect women’s space. No matter; he busted late into the evening anyway.

The chip leader at the end of the night was Australian Angelina Rich, but quite a few well-known women followed close behind. Other women in the top ten on the leaderboard included Lily Kiletto, Cherish Andrews, and JJ Liu.

 

Event 23: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix 6-Handed

More than HORSE but fewer than Dealer’s Choice, the Eight-Game Mix offers a poker variety. Players saw Limit Hold’em, Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better, Seven-Card Stud, Razz, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or-Better, No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, and Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw. It was appealing to hundreds of players.

Only 144 made it through the first day of action, though, and quite a few players need to bust to get into the money. It will happen on Tuesday.

 

Lowlight of the Day

Normally, I wouldn’t bring attention to something negative in this space during the WSOP, but this needs to be discussed. Like so many other people, I began watching the PokerGO livestream on Day 12 to see if Phil Hellmuth could capture his record-breaking 16^th bracelet. He was the initial chip leader at the table, though his competition included very tough players like Anthony Zinno, Jack McClelland, and Stephen Chidwick.

It didn’t take long from the start of the livestreamed action for Hellmuth to lose his lead and his cool. Hellmuth started with his standard berating of competitor’s decisions out loud but to himself. Everyone appears to expect this from him. However, he continued. With every hand, he seemed to get angrier and began to direct his ire more directly to his competitors, blatantly telling them how bad they played. He consistently talked about how he played better, how no one else works as hard or wants to win as much as he does.

Meanwhile, his anger turned an occasional f-bomb into more than should be acceptable. I can work myself into a storm of curse words with the best of them, but Hellmuth’s f**k-filled rant was outrageous.

He also mentioned several times that saying he wanted to burn the place down would not be an okay thing to say…so…then he said it outright. Of course, a few minutes later, he said he didn’t mean it literally. Does that matter? Once the words come out, you can’t suck them back in. He could have apologized but instead tried to play it off…and kept talking about it.

At one point, Hellmuth even threw his cards on the table. Some say he slammed them on the table. I initially thought he threw them toward the dealer (via the PokerGO stream). Either way, the cards flew off the other side of the table.

All the while, he continued to berate his opponents.

Let’s take a quick look at the WSOP rules, shall we?

-Rule 40(c): “All participants are entitled to expect civility and courtesy from one another at every table and throughout the WSOP area. Any individual who encounters behavior that is not civil or courteous – or is abusive in any way – is encouraged to immediately contact a WSOP tournament official.”

-Rule 46: “Rio prohibits the use of obscene or foul language in any public area of the casino at any time. Any participant who uses such language or makes a foul, profane, obscene or vulgar tatement, or speaks abusively or in an intimidating manner to another participant, a dealer, or a WSOP tournament staff member, will be penalized.”

-Rule 47: “Any participant who taunts another participant through theatrics or gestures or engages in any form of inappropriate behavior intended to disrupt other participants in an event will be subject to penalty.”

-Rule 48: “Participant or staff abuse will not be tolerated. A participant will incur a penalty up to and including disqualification for any abuse towards another participant or staff member, and the participant could be asked to leave the property. Repeated etiquette violations, including, but not limited to, touching another participant’s cards or chips, body or clothing, delay of game and excessive chatter will result in penalties.”

The dealers did nothing. The floor did nothing. Hellmuth was not penalized for any of it.

When will the WSOP hold Phil Hellmuth to the same standards as other players?

World Series of rules randomly applied

— Adam Schwartz (@ASchwartzPoker) October 12, 2021