History could be brewing as Phil Hellmuth made the final table of the $10,000 2-7 Lowball Championship late last night at the World Series of Poker.  The self-proclaimed “Poker Brat” will be looking to win a 12th WSOP bracelet later today at the Rio Resort and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Known as one of the best No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournament players of all-time, Hellmuth is long removed from his initial bracelet, a 1989 win in the $10,000 World Championship. Since then he has won 10 more bracelets, curiously all in Texas Hold’em events.  Phil has made it no secret he would love to win a bracelet in a non-Hold’em event and later today he will have his chance.  However, a formidable final table looms including another former world champion in Greg Raymer, along with chip leader and high-stakes professional Richard “CHUFTY” Ashby, WSOPE Champ John Juanda, and Joe “Butch Acidy” Cassidy all are trying to spoil Hellmuth’s party.

Hellmuth is positioned in the bottom third of the field but in an action game like 2-7 NL Lowball anything can happen. For those unfamiliar with this poker discipline the game is actually quite different from others. Instead of trying to make the best high-hand players are actually trying to make the worst hand possible.  The ultimate low-hand is called #1, and is 7-5-4-3-2. There are three other seven hands including 7-6-4-3-2, 7-6-5-3-2, and 7-6-5-4-2.  Straights and flushes counterfeit a player’s hand and the Ace is the highest card in the deck.  There is an initial round of betting, followed by a draw, and a second round.  As the name of the game suggests, players can wager all of their chips at any given time.   Overall 2-7 thrives off of a lack of information forcing players to trust their reads and make interesting bluffs and value bets.  Hellmuth is skilled at both of these poker fundamentals giving him a great chance at winning despite the strong final table.  With $367,170 slated for the winner there is also more than just a bracelet on the line.  For Hellmuth to win he will need to play fearless poker and catch a few breaks to run through the likes of Raymer, Cassidy, and Ashby.  The final table will begin at approximately 3:00 PM Local time and will be closely followed by all poker media outlets. Here are the chip-counts heading into Event #16′s Final Table:

Richard Ashby: t700,000
Joe Cassidy: t540,000
David Baker: t492,000
Steve Sung: t441,000
Hasan Habib: t437,000
Greg Raymer: t355,000
Phil Hellmuth: t339,000
Nick Schulman: t306,000
John Juanda: t171,000

Stay tuned to the FlopTurnRiver News Section for breaking news on Event 16 and all the other WSOP Events.