Phil Hellmuth has officially busted in seventh place at the 2026 WSOP Event #9: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, walking away with $54,214 and another final-table appearance for the all-time record, but no closer to the elusive bracelet number 18.
The Poker Brat went into the final table third in chips with 1,750,000 and was tipped by PokerNews to "prove his doubters wrong again." The bracelet did not land. Hellmuth fell in seventh place, with the headline number being $54,214 for the cash and another tick on the WSOP final-table count that nobody else in poker is close to matching.
The math on bracelet 18
Hellmuth's career WSOP haul stays at 17 bracelets and the all-time final-table record gets bigger by one. Every deep run he makes for the rest of the 2026 series will run with the same subtext we wrote on Monday: he is openly chasing 18, and the round-number victory lap is the only thing left to do that nobody else can challenge in the short term. Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan and Phil Ivey are all on 10.
Why a 7th-place bust still matters
A Championship-level $10K final table is the kind of stage the new ESPN Main Stage coverage was built for. Even a 7th-place finish puts Hellmuth on the broadcast schedule, in front of a mainstream audience that does not need to be reminded who he is. The 2026 WSOP still has roughly forty bracelet events left to play, and Hellmuth is registered for most of the mixed-game stops where his live-read edge is biggest.
Another final table, no bracelet. We move on to the next one.
Phil Hellmuth (paraphrased from his post-bust vlog)
What's next
Hellmuth is in Vegas through the bulk of the 2026 WSOP. The next mixed-game stop on his calendar is the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship, where he is also in chip contention. Until 18 lands, every Hellmuth article in this series will run with the same closing line. We will keep tracking it on the Hellmuth profile.
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