The 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $888 buy-in ‘crazy eights’ no-limit hold’em event attracted a huge field of 8,598 entries. This impressive turnout created a massive prize pool of $6,871,521, which was distributed to the top 458 players. The largest chunk of the prize pool went to the eventual champion Galen Hall, who won his first WSOP bracelet and the $888,888 top prize.
The 33-year-old hedge fund manager and poker player Hall, who held the chip lead on Day 2 and Day 3, played his A-game to win the coveted title. In heads-up battle, he faced Eduards Kudrjavcevs of Latvia, who ended runner-up winning $476,888 for his accomplishment.
This was the second largest cash of Hall’s poker career after the $2.3 million that he notched up for winning the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event. With this grand win, the US player Hall now holds more than $5.1 million in the lifetime live tournament earnings.
Hall entered the final table as one of the shorter stacks. After Philip Tom going out in eighth place ($90,888), he was left with just 18 big blinds. Hall then won a flip with Ac-Qh against Jeremiah Miesen’s pocket tens to chip up nicely. Hall continued his rise and then knocked out Alex Kuzmin in fifth place ($201,888) and bracelet winner Andrey Zaichenko in fourth place ($266,888) to take the lead into the three-handed play. Soon, Hall eliminated Niels Herregodts whose 4c4d lost to Hall’s AcKc. Herregodts from Bulgaria earned $355,888 for his third-place finish for his efforts.
Head-up didn’t last long and Kudrjavcevs holding Jh 10c shoved from the small blind for 10,900,000 and Hall holding 9s-9d called. The board ran out 8h 6d 5c 7s Ks and Hall’s pair held up to win him the coveted pot and the title. Kudrjavcevs took home $476,888 for his the runner-up finish.
Team India
More than a dozen of Indians took part in this event across various starting flights. However, only 6 players could cash out in this event and they included the young gun Vivek Rughani (171st – $5,203), Abhishek Rathod (347th – $3,428), Shashank Jain (367th – $3,031), Abhinav Iyer (408th – $3,031), Adda52 Team Pro Nikita Luther (511th – $2,106), and Paawan Bansal (533rd – $2,106).
It has been a crazy summer in Vegas for Indians with several of them winning and cashing big. After the Adda52 Team Pro Nikita Luther getting the first WSOP bracelet for India by winning the Tag Team Event, India’s Kalyan Chakravarthy has recently won his largest live cash $147,233 (INR 1.01 Crore) at the Venetian 2018 DeepStack Championship Poker Series (DCPS) Event #99: $600 NLH Monster Stack $750,000 GTD.
Final Table Payouts (USD):
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) |
| 1 | Galen Hall | $888,888 |
| 2 | Eduards Kudrjavcevs | $476,888 |
| 3 | Niels Herregodts | $355,888 |
| 4 | Andrey Zaichenko | $266,888 |
| 5 | Alex Kuzmin | $201,888 |
| 6 | Jeremiah Miesen | $153,888 |
| 7 | Martin Stausholm | $117,888 |
| 8 | Philip Tom | $90,888 |
| 9 | Alexandre Novaes | $70,546 |
We wish Indian players good luck for the WSOP 2018 Main Event, which has progressed into Day 2!