Phil Hellmuth Breaks WSOP Single Series Final Table Record

Phil Hellmuth fell one spot shy of his 17th World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet early Sunday morning in Event #84: $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, but he set an impressive record in the process.

The 1989 world champ reached his seventh final table of the 2021 series, breaking a 28-year record held by An Tran. In 1993, Tran made a final table in six bracelet events, but had very little success late in the tournaments. He not only didn't win a bracelet that year, but he didn't even finish runner-up in any of those final table appearances.

Continues to Crush It

Hellmuth, on the other hand, has performed well in his final table opportunities. The "Poker Brat" has one bracelet this fall to go along with a pair of runner-up finishes. He won his 16th bracelet, extending his own record, back in October when he shipped Event #31: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw.

At Saturday's PLO high roller final table, which finished up in the wee hours of Sunday morning, he had a shot at bracelet 17 during three-handed play, and even held the chip lead on multiple occasions, but couldn't quite pull it off. Jeremy Ausmus, instead won the bracelet, his second of the series and third overall. Daniel Negreanu took third place, and once again came up short of a bracelet at a final table.

Phil Hellmuth's 2021 WSOP Final Table Appearances

Still Losing POY Race

The 2021 WSOP Player of the Year race has been so competitive that Hellmuth isn't winning despite setting a single-series record with seven final table appearances. Josh Arieh, who won two bracelets this fall, is holding on to a slim lead over the 16-time bracelet winner.

Arieh, who finished seventh in the $50k PLO, entered Sunday's action with 3,996.87 points, while Hellmuth is in second place at 3,664.09. Had Hellmuth beaten Ausmus heads-up for the bracelet, he would have received enough points to jump into the lead. Speaking of Ausmus, he's now still in contention at 3,272.57 points.

Arieh is having a banner 2021 WSOP. He's won two bracelets and cashed in 11 events. Hellmuth and Arieh both entered and busted Event #85: $50,000 High Roller on Sunday short of the money. So, they won't rack up any additional points heading into the final few events.

Negreanu, however, late registered for the NLH high roller and quickly spun up a stack. At the time of publishing, he was near the top of the chip counts with 16 out of 113 players remaining. The GGPoker ambassador is still within striking distance of POY at 2,975.30 points. He'd need to win his first bracelet in eight years to catch up to Arieh heading into the final two days of the series. "DNegs," who won it in 2004 and 2013, is the only two-time Player of the Year.