Bodog Beat

Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth got up to talk to the floorperson about the incident with Thomas Wahlroos, leaving his chip stack alone and violated. (Bodog Beat Image)

We don't mean to sound like we're stalking Phil Hellmuth, this stuff just keeps happening right in front of us. This incident happened during the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event again, and involved Finnish poker pro Thomas Wahlroos, son of one of the wealthiest people in Finland.

Just after Hellmuth won a huge pot in which he called an 80k all-in bet with pocket aces and watched them hold up against his opponents pocket sixes, he went walking around the tournament area looking for someone to tell that he was most likely the new chip leader. He found Thomas Wahlroos.

An obviously intoxicated Wahlroos, who was apparently taking a break from the $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi Lo event, eagerly listened to Hellmuth tell him about the size of his stack. At the end of the story he blurted with feigned incredulity, "chip leader? No way. Let me see." He then proceeded to follow Phil to his seat, and upon arrival swept the patiently and lovingly built chip stack (trust us, we watched him) into a jumbled heap of colors. A truly bratty thing to do, even if to another "brat".

Wahlroos proceeded to crack (mainly himself) up, while several onlookers smirked and others just stared at the unfolding scene. Phil yelled for the floor, calling for Thomas to be escorted from the building. One floorperson approached the still-cackling Thomas and asked him to go and apologize to Phil, followed by another one who just said, "get him out of here." We'll have to assume that Thomas went back to the poker tent and the Stud event because we stuck around to watch the Phil show.

After much gesticulating and posturing, he finally got a grip on himself and just asked that Thomas be prevented from re-entering the tournament area and that he be assessed an hour penalty in his own tournament if he did. We, and the floorpeople, felt this was probably the most fair solution. However, Phil spent the next 15-20 minutes talking loudly to anyone who would listen about the situation and extolling his own sense of fairness and good behavior at the table. All a little ironic considering his own bratty behavior.

The event then broke for a fifteen minute break and everyone went about their business.

Stay tuned as we dish the dirt from the floor of the Amazon Room live at the 2007 World Series of Poker. Look, we've told you before. We're the US Weekly of poker now, get over it.