Hellmuth Makes His Grand Appearance with Jungleman as his Guest

It's the spectacle that many people wait for at the World Series of Poker Main Event. Always on the final starting flight, Phil Hellmuth makes his grand appearance midway through the day while everyone else has their heads down trying to grind away in the biggest poker tournament of their lives.

In the 2023 rendition, Hellmuth entered the Horseshoe grand ballroom as the Stage Master while Daniel 'Jungleman' Cates accompanied him as a lion. Hellmuth also brought in 17 models that were in lion costumes, representing the 17 WSOP bracelets he has won in his career. The 17th bracelet came earlier this year in Event #72: $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty.

Both players have taken their seats with a fresh starting stack of 60,000 chips just prior to the players going on break. As usual, many of the Hellmuth fans were lined up to grab a picture with the 1989 WSOP Main Event champion. Hellmuth will be making his way to the feature table when the cards go back in the air and Cates will be not far off in the distance, seated in the Gold section.