Cowboy Up -- Phil Hellmuth Wins a Big Pot

If you see a crowd suddenly gather around a table, there's a pretty good chance you'll find Phil Hellmuth at the center of attention. A short-stacked player moved in his remaining 3,125 chips, and Phil just called -- he wanted to stress this fact, he just called. The big blind came over the top and raised to 6,075 total.

Phil put both hands behind his stack and sent a tidal wave of green, black and blue chips cascading into the center of the pot. That got everyone's attention. Soon there were spectators craning their necks to get a look while Phil stood up and talked up his play to the crowd. "Wait, where are my cards?" Hellmuth joked, knowing they were buried under his spilled stack.

The floor unearthed Phil's cards and re-stacked his chips, and the player in the big blind had to decide whether to call about an additional 5,000. He and Hellmuth bantered back and forth a bit, the big blind thought about it, thought about it...and called.

Phil turned over {K-Spades}

, the big blind had {Q-Hearts}

, and the original all-in bettor had {J-Diamonds}

. It would've been impolite to mention that Phil had his kings cracked by jacks in an earlier tournament, and in the end it also would've been irrelevent--the board brought no help to any of the players and Phil's cowboys held up, boosting his stack to 44,000.

Tags: Phil Hellmuth

2007 World Series of Poker

2007 World Series of Poker

Cowboy Up -- Phil Hellmuth Wins a Big Pot