Juha Helppi Bio

Born in Turku, Finland, Juha Helppi has always been a competitor. As a child, he excelled in soccer. Helppi was also a talented paintball player and was captain of the Finnish national paintball championship team. His friends introduced him to poker, and at the age of 21, he became a casino dealer. After watching, playing online, and studying poker, he steadily improved.

He burst onto the poker scene by winning the first World Poker Tour event in Aruba. Another major tournament win eluded him for the next couple of years, but he came quite close. At the 2004 Monte Carlo Millions, he finished second. Then, in 2005, Helppi placed second to Roland De Wolfe at the Grand Prix De Paris. He placed second once again in a $1,000 no-limit hold'em event in the 2006 World Series of Poker to Phil Hellmuth. Helppi finally broke his streak at the 2007 Bellagio Cup III, when he took down a no-limit hold'em preliminary event.