After Feature Table Tussle, Phil Hellmuth Offers To Pay For Campbell’s Buy-In

One day after Phil Hellmuth’s feature table confrontation with James Campbell, the ‘Poker Brat’ is offering an olive branch – in the form of a $10 000 WSOP buy-in. His actions have been criticized by players and spectators alike, but everyone now seems to be satisfied with his apology.

The Controversial Hand

It all started on Day 2C of the World Series of Poker main event. Hellmuth, who is already the subject of a $10K WSOP bet, was involved in a three-way hand against Alex Kuzmin and James “Camby” Campbell. The blinds were 800/1600 when Kuzmin raised to 3,200 with KD 2D. Hellmuth called 7H 7S, as did Camby with the Ace-9 of diamonds.

The flop was 4D 3D 10S. Camby checked, Kuzmin bet $3000 and Hellmuth min-raised to $6000. All of a sudden, Camby check-raised and went all in for $26,000. Before Kuzmin had the chance to act, Hellmuth erupted in typical Poker Brat fashion.

Spectators and commentators have criticized Hellmuth’s actions. Since he lost his temper during the middle of the action, he interrupted the flow of the game and have put the other players off. Justin Bonomo stated that Hellmuth’s behavior was far beyond what was acceptable, while commentator Shaun Deeb suggested that he should receive a penalty. Even Erik Seidel chimed in, calling it a “very serious incident”.

A Mea Culpa

While Hellmuth blows up fairly often, he does tend to apologize. This is another situation in which he realized that he was in the wrong, and decided to apologize over Twitter and extend a very expensive peace offering:

“@JCamby33 I lost some sleep over my outburst. I believe you lose the hand anyway, but maybe I am wrong. You handled yourself well, and played well. As a gesture of goodwill, and because I respect policeman and firefighters: I’m going to buy you into 2019 $10,000 @WSOP Main Event” -@phil_hellmuth

Camby has responded very graciously and stated that he is “already looking forward to 2019 WSOP Main Event”. While his contacts have suggested that Hellmuth should actually pay for both 2019 and 2020 buy-ins, Campbell has stated that Hellmuth’s offer was generous enough; however, he is disappointed that he hasn’t received any acknowledgement from the WSOP itself over the incident.

What could have been the start of a rather unpleasant poker rivalry has actually turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful friend. Even Kuzmin got his own happy ending, earning $23 940 for placing 588th in the WSOP Main Event.