Romania now has its first WSOP gold bracelet winner after local player Alexandru Papazian bested a behemoth field of 8,120 entries in the $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed. Apart from the gold jewelry piece, the seasoned poker pro also found a $888,888 first-place prize at the end of his victory road.
Originally announced as a three-day event, the tournament took one additional day to be completed, a day during which Papazian played heads-up against Kilian Kramer. However, the two players had to work hard on the previous day to work their way through the two-handed battle.
Day 3 of the tournament began with 28 players eyeing the top. It took several hours of play before the final table was reached. And when that happened, Papazian’s actual crusade began. The player eliminated five of his final-table opponents and by the time there were just three players left, he had accumulated a massive stack representing 80% of all chips in play.
Kramer performed the sixth final-table bust-out late on Tuesday to pave the way for the heads-up match. The two remaining players decided to call it a day and to return on Wednesday with freshly revised strategies for a sweet victory.
Two-handed action kicked off with Papazian holding three times more chips than his final opponent. A total of 29 hands were needed before the Romanian player could strike a happy pose with the gold piece.
Hand #154 was the last hand played within the event’s final table. It unfolded with Kramer moving all-in pre-flop and Papazian calling after a count. Kramer tabled [9s][6s] against his opponent’s [Ks][9c]. The flop brought [9h][Kc][2d]
and only a miracle could have saved Kramer. However, the miracle did not happen and blank [As] on the turn and [5d] on the river sealed the deal for Papazian. Kramer left in second place with $463,888 for his efforts.
The Romanian player said in first post-victory comments that he was extremely happy, even though he did not show it properly. Papazian explained that he was not of the emotional type, but was glad to be scoring such an important victory.
Asked what made him happier – the gold bracelet or the hefty payout, the player picked the gold and the fact that he became the first Romanian to bring a WSOP trophy to his homeland.
As mentioned above, the $888 Crazy Eights tournament brought together 8,120 entries who created a prize pool of $6,489,504. The top 1,119 finishers received a payout from the tournament, min-cash starting from $1,332.
