Hung Le from Huber Heights, Ohio has become the champion of the 2016 WSOP $888 Crazy Eights 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em, an event that was added on the Series’ schedule for the very first time this year. Le scooped his first-ever WSOP-related cash and his first-ever WSOP-related title. The player’s share of the prize pool amounted to $888,888.
The WSOP debuted as many as 8 new events during this year’s edition of the popular poker festival, and the $888 Crazy Eights was among those. The tournament featured four starting flights, played in two days, and two more days of play. It was played from July 1 to July 4. The winner was guaranteed a first-place prize of $888,888.
The event attracted a massive field of 6,761 entries who generated a prize pool of $5,403,391. The top 956 places got paid, with min-cashes worth $1,330. Day 3 of the tournament kicked off with 12 remaining players and Chase Johnson leading the race towards the first-place prize of $888,888 and the coveted gold bracelet.
The official eight-handed final table was comprised of several players who have never cashed before at a WSOP event, let alone make it to the final table, by others who have had previous in-the-money finishes, and by a two-time gold bracelet winner. Female poker pro Loni Harwood was in fact the only player at the event’s final table to have formerly won the treasured gold piece.
Eventually, Le was the one to emerge victorious. The player scooped the final pot and the gold bracelet with it after playing heads-up against Michael Lech from Alma, Arkansas. The two-handed duel took 46 hands for a winner to be determined. On the very last hand for the night and the event as a whole, Le called from the button and Lech raised to 800,000. Le called. The flop arrived [Ad][10c][4d] to see Lech bet 900,000 and Le call. The [8d] appeared on the turn and Le bet 1,500,000. Lech re-raised to all in and Le called.
Lech tabled [Qc][Jc] against his opponent’s [2c][2s]. The river came [6d], thus securing Le with the victory and his first career gold bracelet. Lech took home the amount of $401,888, which was not a bad first-ever WSOP cash.
Dimitar Danchev from Bulgaria took 3rd place in the event for a payout of $297,888. Rafael Yaraliyev from Brooklyn, New York finished 4th for $222,888. Henry Grunzweig from Berkeley, California collected the amount of $167,888 for his 5th place in the tournament.
Two-time gold bracelet winner Loni Harwood from Staten Island, New York finished 6th for $126,888. Aurelien Guiglini from France scooped a $96,888 share of the prize pool for taking 7th place. Yang Zhang from China took 8th place, good for $74,888.
