Juha Helppi: Nearly Two Decades of Staying Power

"We'll see if you're around in 10 years," is one of them, Hellmuth's way of suggesting a player may be experiencing success on a short-term wave of variance but won't have the sort of staying power Hellmuth himself has shown, putting up results over decades of play.

It's anyone's guess whether he ever threw that line at Juha Helppi when they battled back in the day — it doesn't seem likely given the Finnish pro's understated nature — but if he or anyone else questioned Helppi's long-term prospects in the game, Helppi has provided a resounding answer.

Consistency is the calling card of Helppi, who has cashed in the six figures for 15 years running and continues to put up results nearly two decades after he first took up the game. He played in the €50,000 Super High Rollerhere at PokerStars Championship Prague, a long way from his first live result, third place for $5,316 in the Helsinki Freezeout in 2001.

In that way, Helppi sticks out like a sore thumb in a field like this. Even some of the players who have seemed to be at this game for years, like Stephen Chidwick (2008) and Timothy Adams (2007), began their live tournament success well after Helppi. Only legends Erik Seidel (1988) and John Juanda (1997) can reminisce about tournaments past in which Helppi had no part.

But while those two enjoy poker celebrity status, Helppi has stayed largely under the radar despite such a long track record of success.

What would 1999 Helppi have said if he was told he'd be playing €50,000 tournaments in 18 years?

"I thought people who pay $10,000 to play a tournament are crazy and totally nuts," he said. "My 1999 self wouldn't believe it. He'd say the guy in 2017 is crazy. Back then, there wasn't even 50K tournaments."

The journey has been a long but rewarding one for Helppi.

"I started with $200 online and... it's been going well," he said, an understatement if there's ever been one. "I never busted that $200."