Phil Hellmuth the runner up in Poker Player’s Championship

Sunday July 10,2011 : In his third runner-up finish in this year's World Series of Poker, Phil Hellmuth just failed to achieve a record twelfth WSOP bracelet in the early hours of Thursday morning, falling to the superior skill and cards of Brian Rast to finish second in the 2011 $50,000 buy-in Poker Player's Championship.
 
Rast's first prize was a second bracelet to add to his growing collection, the prestigious Chip Reese trophy and $1,720,328, whilst Hellmuth collected yet another disappointing if lucrative runner-up check for $1,063,034 at the end of the fiercely contested event 55 that started with 128 of the best players on the planet and ended in a gruelling, almost 12 hour final table in 5 days of play.
 
Rast's performance was outstanding, starting the final day second to Minh Ly in chip counts, and besting redoubtable exponents of the game like Hellmuth, Ben Lamb, Scott Seiver, Matt Glantz, George Lind and Owais Ahmed.
 
At one point it looked as if Hellmuth had it in the bag and was about to claim his first seven-figure payday as he first took and then built up the chip lead, but after the dinner break and with the table down to four-handed play, he seemed to resort to a looser style of play that ultimately cost him dearly.
 
When Minh Ly fell in third place Hellmuth still held a slight lead going into the heads up with Rast, and his aggressive style seemed to be paying dividends as he repeatedly crushed Rast and extended his lead, at one point to 13 million or more.
 
Then Rast showed his mettle in a disciplined come-back from a chip stack that at one point was down to 2.9 million. Playing like the absolute professional he is, Rast staged a remarkable recovery with several double ups that evened the scores.
 
He then drew ahead steadily until he had Hellmuth beat, jumping up from the table to celebrate his second bracelet of this tournament with fans and his parents before thanking Hellmuth for a well fought competition.