David Moses Wins First World Series of Poker Bracelet In $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em

David Moses couldn’t have picked a better time in his life to win the largest score of his poker career.

Just a year after being laid off from his job, the North Carolina native won his first career World Series of Poker bracelet in the $888 crazy eights no-limit hold’em event. He bested a massive 5,252-entry field and defeated Sejin Park heads-up to win the $888,888 first-place prize.

“Everybody wants a bracelet,” Moses told reporters after the tournament. “They asked me if I wanted a picture of it when we got heads-up and I said I’ll get a picture when I win. Just being honest, the money mattered a lot more. It’s a huge amount of money for an $800 tournament. It’s life-changing money. I’ve got two amazing backers. The series has been kind of rough, but it’s definitely not rough anymore.”

Moses is pretty easy to spot in any poker room because of his signature Grinch hat that he wears to nearly every tournament he plays. He began wearing the hat because of the “Global Grinch” nickname he earned while streaming some of his Global Poker tournament sessions online.

“I had a grinch avatar at some point,” said Moses. “And because I streamed and ranted, I became known as ‘The Global Grinch.’ So I bought this hat and as a joke, I wore it to a $400 tournament in Cherokee at a WSOP Circuit stop.”

The feedback he got from several other players in the tournament was overwhelmingly positive and he has worn it ever since.

Coming into the final day of the event, there were just six players remaining With Leonid Yanovski holding the chip lead. While everyone was chasing Yanovski, the title was clearly up for grabs since the stack depths were shallow.

The eight-handed final table was reached the night before and it saw Farhad Davoudzadeh hit the rail in eighth and Joseph Liberta bust in seventh before the final six players bagged up for the night.

On the first hand of the final day, Georgios Sotiropoulos, who was in contention for his fourth career bracelet and second of the series, was eliminated by Paul Fehlig. Sotiropoulos moved all in for his 11 big blinds out of the small blind and was called by Fehlig in the big blind.

Sotiropoulos was in trouble with his K6 against Fehlig’s KQ and was drawing very thin on the QJ2 flop. He was dead to a chop on the 9 turn, but the 4 river sent him home in sixth, while Fehlig moved into the chip lead.

With shallow stacks, chips continued to fly and there were several double ups before the next elimination. Yanovski wasn’t involved in many of the showdowns but was still the next to go when he got three-outed by Moses.

Timo Kahmphues min-raised from under the gun and Moses moved all in on the button. Yanovski called out of the big blind and Kamphues threw his hand away.

Yanovski was in great shape to retake the chip lead with his AK up against Moses’ AQ, but a queen-high flop changed those odds drastically. Yanovski needed a king to stay alive, but the 3 on the turn and the 2 on the river didn’t change anything and he was out in fifth, while Moses was the one in the chip lead with just three other players standing between him and the bracelet.

Sejin Park eliminated Fehlig in fourth when his A6 held up against Fehlig’s Q10. Fehlig moved all in for about 11 big blinds on the button and Park called from the big blind. An ace-high flop sealed Fehlig’s finish.

Three-handed play was where Moses really began to separate himself from Park and Kamphues. He won most pots and amassed 167,200,000 of the roughly 210,000 in play, while Kamphues became the clear short stack.

Park ended up eliminating Kamphues in third when his 6-6 held up against Kamphues’ A-4 in a button versus big blind preflop all in. Park scooped the last of Kamphues’ stack and started his match against Moses at 3-to-1 disadvantage.

Park doubled up once in a cooler situation after flopping a straight against top two pair, but Moses still held a 2-to-1 chip lead. Ultimately, Park moved all in with K-8 for about eight big blinds and got looked up by Moses’ A-8.

The 7628J runout sent the pot, the bracelet and the lion’s share of the prize pool to Moses.

Final Table Results:

Photo Credit: WSOP/Hayley Hochstetler

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