BY TOM SOMACH

Professional poker’s most controversial player may also be its greatest player.

In history.

Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr. has just won his 11th career World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet by coming in first in the just-concluded WSOP Event #15. a $1,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament.

The tourney featured 2,628 entrants and a total prize pool of $3,587,220.

Before the start of this year’s WSOP tournament in Las Vegas, the famously obnoxious Hellmuth was tied with two other poker legends for most WSOP gold bracelets won all-time: Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson and Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan also each had 10.

So naturally, one of the storylines of this year’s WSOP was which one of the trio, if any, would become the first person to win an 11th bracelet, and with it the unofficial title of “Greatest Poker Player of All Time.”

For his first-place finish, Hellmuth, of Palo Alto, Calif., USA, takes home $637,254.

The second-place finisher didn’t do too badly, either.

Runnerup Andy Philachack of Garland, Tex., USA, earned $394,594 for his efforts.

On his “blog” (web log) at www.cardplayer.com, Hellmuth says he’ll give bracelet No. 11 to his sister, Molly, whose birthday is Nov. 11 (11/11).

So is Hellmuth really the greatest poker player of all time?

Critics will point out that Brunson and Chan have still each won the WSOP main event twice, while Hellmuth has won it only once.

Also, all 11 of Hellmuth’s bracelets have been won in no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournaments, so as great as he is, his field of poker expertise is quite limited.

Brunson, on the other hand, has won his bracelets in multiple types of WSOP tourneys, so he could be considered the greatest poker player of all time because of his versatility.

As Brunson once said to Hellmuth during a tournament televised on ESPN: “All your bracelets have come in no-limit hold ‘em. What does that tell you?”

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)