Juha Helppi

Juha Helppi (born 4 March 1977) is a Finnish professional poker player from Helsinki.

Career

Juha was originally a croupier. He worked as a dealer for RAY in Finland but never dealt poker. He made a name for himself in the first World Poker Tour (WPT) event in Aruba, where he eliminated Kathy Liebert on the way to defeating professional player Phil Gordon in a heads-up challenge match. He has since made two other WPT final tables, with a 4th-place finish in the Season 1 Battle of Champions and a 2nd-place finish to England's Roland De Wolfe in the Grand Prix de Paris 2005 event. In addition he had a 10th-place finish in the Season 3 Championship event.

He has also finished in the money of five World Series of Poker events, and his career winnings to date amount to over $2,420,000.

In November 2005, Helppi faced Phil Laak and Kenna James in the first ever underwater poker tournament and was awarded the Caribbean Poker Classic Extreme Poker bracelet.

As the winner of InterPoker's first extreme poker tournament, he earned the right to choose the next year's location. He chose to play it in Kemi on the frozen Gulf of Bothnia. He finished second, losing to former WSOP champion Robert Varkonyi.

As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,000,000. His 13 cashes at the WSOP account for $511,949 of those winnings.

Helppi is a high level paintball player and the captain of the Finnish national paintball champions 1997,2003,2007 and 2008. When younger, he played Magic: The Gathering successfully for several years.

On 4 March 2007, his 30th birthday, Helppi won the inaugural Premier League Poker title, defeating some of the all-time greats along the way, such as Phil Hellmuth and Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott.