Hellmuth up to #9 in list as Pollack slips

Tuesday 26th June 2007

Phil Helmuth has made spot 9 on ThePokerBiz list of the game’s most influential personalities and organisations.

ThePokerBiz list has seen Helmuth climb seven places since winning his 11th bracelet. The list includes players, lobbyists, companies and poker sites, and unsurprisingly, the World Series of Poker holds first place.

The WSOP commissioner, Jeffrey Pollack, has fallen in favour to spot 12 following a number of ‘issues’ with the organisation of the event. Complaints have focused on temperatures inside the tent, unlimited tournament entries leading to sprawling tournaments and a final table which suddenly found itself with a tenth player. To please ESPN cameras Phil Helmuth was given a seat on the ‘final table’ of the $3,000 no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament. Short stack Phil wasn’t the next player to bust out but perhaps someone at ESPN doesn’t think that Helmuth has what it takes! It's media plays like these that evidently have earned Phil his 9 spot on ThePokerBiz list.

A special ‘players meeting’ is due to be held on Wednesday June 2nd, when Pollack must be expecting to face the music.

He said: “We know that many of our players have excellent ideas and we want to give them an opportunity to provide input that will make the WSOP better in the future.”

Another man who will be listening carefully is blind player Jason Holbrook. His seat in the main event comes from a satellite win at the Golden West Casino. He will have an assistant whispering the cards and bets to him.

Source: OnlineCasinoNews