Event #62: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed - $888,888 Guaranteed 1st Place

He might have had to wait two more days for it than he liked, but in the end, there was no stopping Galen Hall in Event #62: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed. Hall, who held the chip lead after both Day 2 and Day 3 continued where he left off, never relinquishing his stronghold over the competition at any point

Hall won his first career WSOP bracelet as well as the appropriate first place prize of $888,888, following in Alex Papazian's footsteps as the winner of this special event. With the win, the American moved up to over 5M in lifetime winnings. Hall was supported by his girlfriend as well as his mom and dad, who drove in this morning to watch their son play the final stretch of this four-day tournament.

Runner-up was Eduards Kudrjavcevs of Latvia, who received $476,888 for his accomplishment to break his own 1M lifetime winnings mark. Third place went to Niels Herregodts ($355,888) of Belgium, who got married here in Las Vegas just five days ago.

Official Final Table Result

The tournament got paused on Tuesday night after the level cap for the day was reached. Three players returned for the showdown on Thursday, after Wednesday was scheduled off to accommodate for the Main Event. Hall admitted he rather would've played on on Tuesday night.

"Tuesday, you know there's just certain things after like a whole long day of playing, it's harder for people to switch things up, people are a little tired so I felt like I had a good beat of what was going on. And today, I had to scale it back for the first 30 minutes or so to sort of see. You know, a lot of players can get coaching, or they get rest, they change their style a little bit if there's time off. But luckily I ran hot so it didn't matter.''

Despite the inconvenience — at least in Hall's opinion — the game plan wasn't going to change.

''I thought both of the other players were a little on the tighter side and I had the chip lead. ICM was a little less than normal with small third to second pay jumps, but I thought it probably still mattered to them a reasonable amount, so I was hoping if one of them got short I could apply a lot of pressure to the other one and I thought I would get a lot of chips from that and I just generally came in planning to be aggressive."

The aggressiveness paid off: Hall was able to collect more than his fair share of pots as well as extracting value with his good hands. While holding the big lead, two important coin flips fell Hall's way to win the coveted price: ace-king against the pocket fours of Herregodts, followed up by holding with pocket nines against Kudrjavcevs' jack-ten to win two hours after the day started.

Final Day Action

Shortly after the clock struck 2 p.m., the three remaining players returned to decide who would win their first career bracelet as well as the gigantic $888,888 first place prize that awaited the winner. Hall started as the chipleader and would never relinquish it as the three played down to the winner in 55 hands.

Kudrjavcevs started the day as the short stack and didn't need long to put his chips at work. A few of his shoves got through but chip wise, the stacks remained stable in the first dozen of hands.

It took until hand #178, the 40th hand of the day before one of Kudrjavcevs' all-ins got called. After raising, Herregodts called the shove with pocket deuces but Kudrjavcevs got there with king-queen when a queen hit the turn.

Kudrjavcevs' comeback was short-lived, as Hall was able to extract value from the Latvian in a sizable hand with king-queen. Kudrjavcevs called off a big river bet, mucked his hand, and was left with eight big blinds.

However, it would be Herregodts that would bow out first. Holding pocket fours, the Belgian raised on the button and four-bet shoved around 34 big blinds when Hall three-bet him in the big blind. Hall snap-called with ace-king and hit an ace on the flop to send Herregodts home in third ($355,888). Hall and Kudrjavcevs played a few more hands before going on break.

After the break and subsequent blind-up, Kudrjavcevs had exactly eleven big blinds left and shoved those with jack-ten. Hall snap-called with pocket nines and scored his first career bracelet after the board ran out eight-six-five-seven-king. Kudrjavcevs received $476,888 for his second-place finish and went over the 1M mark in lifetime winnings.

With his mom, dad and girlfriend on the rail, Hall celebrated the victory and followed in Alex Papazian's footsteps as the new $888 Crazy Eights champion! This concludes the PokerNews coverage of this event. Keep following along as the action at the 2018 World Series of Poker is heating up.

Hand #188: Niels Herregodts opened to 1,900,000 on the button. Galen Hall three-bet to 7,000,000 from the big blind. Herregodts four-bet shoved for 27,500,000. Hall called.

Galen Hall:   
Niels Herregodts:   

The board ran       and that was it for Herregodts, eliminated in 3rd place for $355,888.

Galen Hall	58,400,000	28,100,000
Niels Herregodts	0	-27,600,000

Hand #180: Eduards Kudrjavcevs opened to 1,600,000 on the button. Niels Herregodts, in the big blind, called.

The dealer spread a flop of     that was checked through to the   turn. Herregodts checked. Kudrjavcevs bet 1,400,000. Herregodts called. The   river completed the board and was checked around. Herregodts showed    to win the pot.

Hand #181: Herregodts opened to 2,600,000 from the small blind. Kudrjavcevs folded his big blind.

Hand #182: Kudrjavcevs limped from the small blind. Galen Hall raised to 2,500,000 from the big blind. Kudrjavcevs called.

Players saw a flop of     that was checked around to the   turn. Kudrjavcevs bet 2,300,000. Hall called. The   river filled up the board and Kudrjavcevs opted to check. Hall went deep into the tank before firing 2,700,000. Kudrjavcevs called. Hall showed    to rake in the pot. His opponent mucked.

Galen Hall	37,500,000	7,100,000
Niels Herregodts	24,400,000	4,500,000
Eduards Kudrjavcevs	7,000,000	-11,600,000

Hand #170: Hall got a walk.

Hand #171: Herregodts got a walk.

Hand #172: Hall opened to 1,600,000 on the button. Herregodts called in the small blind. The flop came     and was checked through to the  . Herregodts bet 1,800,000. Hall called. The   river completed the board and Herregodts continued for 4,800,000. Hall called. Herregodts showed    and Hall tabled    for a chopped pot.

Hand #173: Hall got a walk.

Hand #174: Hall limped from the small blind. Herregodts checked. The flop came     and was checked around to the   turn and   river. Hall threw in a bet of 1,400,000. Herregodts called. Hall showed    and Herregodts revealed    for a chopped pot.

Hand #175: Hall limped on the button. Kudrjavcevs moved all in for 8,950,000. Hall folded.

Galen Hall	35,100,000	3,300,000
Niels Herregodts	23,100,000	-300,000
Eduards Kudrjavcevs	11,500,000	-2,300,000

Hand #164: Eduards Kudrjavcevs raised to 2.1 million in the small blind and Galen Hall called. The flop came     and Kudrjavcevs checked. Hall checked back and the turn was the  .

Kudrjavcevs checked and Hall bet and Kudrjavcevs folded, and the pot went to Hall.

Hand #165: Hall raised to 1.6 million in the small blind and Niels Herregodts folded in the big blind.

Hand #166: Hall made it 1.2 million on the button and Kudrjavcevs defended his big blind. On the     flop, Kudrjavcevs checked and Hall bet 1.8 million. Kudrjavcevs folded and Hall took another pot.

Hand #167: Hall got a walk.

Hand #168: Herregodts got a walk in his big blind.

Hand #169: Hall raised to 1,200,000 on the button. Kudrjavcevs called from the big blind. The flop was     and was checked through to the   turn. Kudrjavcevs bet 1,300,000. Hall called. The   river completed the board.

Kudrjavcevs checked, Hall moved all in for 11,200,000 and Kudrjavcevs tank-folded.

Galen Hall	31,800,000	4,900,000
Niels Herregodts	23,400,000	-800,000
Eduards Kudrjavcevs	13,800,000	-4,100,000

Hand #154: Galen Hall raised to 1,200,000 from the button, and Eduards Kudrjavcevs called. Action checked around on the     flop, but on the   turn Hall fired out a bet of 1,500,000 after action checked to him. Kudrjavcevs released his hand, which the stream later revealed to be    while Hall's hand was not recorded.

Hand #155: Niels Herregodts raised to 1,480,000 on the button, Eduards Kudrjavcevs three-bet to 4,600,000 out of the small blind and the other players folded.

Hand #156: Eduard Kudrjavcevs raised to 1,200,000 on the button and both Hall and Herregodts called. The flop was     and Kudrjavcevs followed up with 1,300,000. Hall folded, Herregodts check-raised to 3,800,000 and Kudrjavcevs folded.

Hand #157: Hall folded the button, Herregodts raised to 2,100,000 in the small blind and Kudrjavcevs folded the big blind.

Hand #158: Hall got a walk.

Galen Hall	28,000,000	100,000
Niels Herregodts	21,100,000	2,600,000
Eduards Kudrjavcevs	19,900,000	-2,700,000

Hand #144: Galen Hall completed the small blind and Niels Herregodts checked his option. Both players checked the     flop. On the   turn, Hall bet 900,000 and Herregodts called.

The river was the   and went check/check. Hall showed the winner with    and Herregodts mucked.

Hand #145: Hall limped in on the button, Herregodts folded, Eduards Kudrjavcevs moved all in for an 18,100,000 from the big blind and Hall folded.

Hand #146: Hall got a walk.

Hand #147: Herregodts got a walk.

Hand #148: Hall raised to 1,200,000 on the button, Herregodts called from the small blind and Kudrjavcevs called as well. The     flop got checked to Hall, who bet 1,400,000. Herregodts folded and Kudrjavcevs called.

Kudrjavcevs checked the   turn to Hall, who fired another shell worth 1,900,000. Kudrjavcevs gave it some thought before folding, and Hall, cheered on by Vanessa Selbst on the rail, raked in the pot.

Galen Hall	33,900,000	5,100,000
Niels Herregodts	18,900,000	-2,900,000
Eduards Kudrjavcevs	16,100,000	-2,200,000

After a one-day hiatus, Event #62: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed will come to its conclusion at 2 p.m. local time to decide who will win the coveted bracelet and the appropriate first place prize of $888,888. This event began back on Saturday, June 30, and four starting days brought together a field of 8,598 hopefuls.

After three full days, there's just three of them still standing as cards will go into the air 90 minutes from now: Galen Hall (30,100,000), Niels Herregodts (24,750,000) and Eduards Kudrjavcevs (16,400,000). Each of them is already guaranteed a massive $355,888 for their accomplishment, but the $888,888 reward looms on the horizon.

The Final Three

Hall is the most recognizable name going into the final three, and he commands the chip lead as well. Hall already has over $4 million dollar in lifetime winnings, including a massive $2.3 million score at the Bahama's in 2011.

Hall will begin with 30,100,000 in chips, around ten big blinds more than Herregodts (24,750,000). Herregodts, a Belgian who resides in Bulgaria, just got married here in Las Vegas. On Day 1 of the $1,000 Tag Team event, Herregodts and his now wife went to the Little White Chapel to join in holy matrimony. Herregodts has already locked up enough for an amazing honeymoon but will be looking to make this trip one to remember a lifetime.

The short stack belongs to Kudrjavcevs, who will resume Day 4 with 16,400,000 in chips. Kudrjavcevs is an experienced player from Latvia with already over $500,000 in winnings. A second place or better in this event will see him surpass the 1M milestone.

Blinds will resume in Level 39 with a small blind of 300,000, a big blind of 600,000 and a running ante of 60,000. Levels are 60 minutes each and PokerNews will be on the floor with updates of every hand until the winner is crowned.

Final Table Results So Far