Phil Hellmuth Bows Out of Coaching Federico Butteroni

After announcing about a week ago that he would lend his expertise to November Niner Federico Butteroni in a coaching capacity, Phil Hellmuth pulled out due to a previous obligation to do live coverage of the WSOP Main Event for ESPN.

The Poker Brat posted a video last week explaining that he would spend five days with the Italian poker pro at the start of November, but it now appears that Butteroni may have to fend off the eight other final tablists without receiving tutelage from the 14-time WSOP gold bracelet winner.

(1) Frederico Butteroni has a great story and I was looking forward to coaching him for @WSOP November Nine, but I owe him 100% and...

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) October 26, 2015

(2) ...I have a previous commitment to the LIVE @WSOP Coverage on @ESPN. It became obvious that I couldn't coach Frederico and do @ESPN

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) October 26, 2015

Butteroni (6,200,000) has the shortest stack of the November Nine, facing an uphill battle with only about 1/10 the chips of chip leader Joe McKeehen (63,100,000). Butteroni also had the least amount of WSOP cashes among the final tablists, as he and Thomas Cannuli (12,250,000 in chips) eached cashed only twice prior to the Main Event. However, Butteroni did score a min-cash at the WSOPE in Berlin two weeks ago.

Although Hellmuth technically won't be in Butteroni's corner for the final table action that gets underway on Nov. 8, he did post on Twitter that "it will be fun to root for this nice guy w such a great story!"

Butteroni's career tournament earnings stand at $1,105,937, according to the Hendon Mob. Of that total, $1,001,020 came from his (at least) 9th place finish in the 2015 WSOP Main Event. All November Niners received that sum thus far, and all will by vying to move up the cashout position ladder. The title is worth $7,680,021.