Tilt-a-Phil?

We picked up a hand with everybody's favorite whipping boy, Phil Hellmuth, on the flop. The board showed {10-Hearts}

, and the under-the-gun player led out for 5,200. He was called by Hellmuth before a third player in the hand, Tony Clark, raised to 16,000. Clark's raise folded the under-the-gun player and brought the action back to Hellmuth. He called, then checked the {4-Clubs}

turn. Clark immediately moved all in for about 29,000. That sent Hellmuth into the tank, where he started talking to his opponent.

"If you have ace-queen, you're dead," said Hellmuth. There was no response.

"Buddy, what are you doing?" Hellmuth asked. He then asked Clark whether or not he was overplaying ace-queen.

After several minutes, Hellmuth still hadn't acted. One of the players at the table called for a clock, and a floor was summoned to the table. Hellmuth seemed surprised, and asked who called for the clock.

"I did," said Ramzi Jelassi, a player who has engaged in several verbal sparring matches with Hellmuth today. When Hellmuth asked how long he'd been thinking, Ramzi told him it was four minutes. Hellmuth seemed to think, based on that response, that it was fair that a clock had been called.

As the floor counted him down, Hellmuth finally made the call, slamming his chips into the middle. Clark turned over {10-Diamonds}

fo a set of tens, far ahead of Hellmuth's {A-Diamonds}

. The river bricked out {2-Clubs}

, allowing Clark to double up at Hellmuth's expense.

"You probably won't make it 'til the end of the day," said Hellmuth. He then got out of his chair and went to talk to his wife on the rail.

That hand seemed to light a fire under Hellmuth. He started playing every hand. First, after Matt Vengrin raised from late position to 3,000, Hellmuth raised all in. Vengrin called with {A-Diamonds}

and was a dominating favorite over Hellmuth's {A-Clubs}

. The board ran out {Q-Clubs}

to make trip queens for Hellmuth and send Vengrin to the rail.

We stepped away from the table for two minutes, only to come back and see him involved in the very next pot, on the river. Hellmuth bet 20,000 into a 20,000-chip pot with the board showing {5-Diamonds}

. Ryan Hughes made the call; Hellmuth very confidently slammed his {Q-Spades}

down on the table and proclaimed, "Nuts!"

Hellmuth played one more hand immediately thereafter, getting a player to call a raise to 9,000 on the turn (after that player bet 4,000) and a bet of 10,000 on the river. Hellmuth showed {Q-Diamonds}

, an overpair to the board. His opponent mucked.

After all of that, Hellmuth's stack is at 143,000. He still seems to be muttering to himself about the Clark hand, but we did hear him say, "None of that matters now." We'll see if he actually believes it.

2008 World Series of Poker

2008 World Series of Poker

Tilt-a-Phil?