Saliba and Darie Highlight Crazy Eights Final 10 as Rusinovas Scoops Substantial Lead
Only 10 players made it through three days of the action-packed Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em, leaving thousands of players behind as this year's edition drew a record-breaking field of 10,185 entries. The remaining group will return on Wednesday, July 3, at 12 p.m. local time to continue their quest for the $888,888 top-prize and the WSOP wristwear.
The lineup is led by Aleksandras Rusinovas who had a strong push during the final levels of Day 3. Rusinovas' rampaging run saw the Lithuanian vault to 114,625,000, more than a quarter of all chips in play and twice as much as his nearest competitor (Thomas Dravis with 58.6 million).
Rusinovas finished the day with a double knockout, bringing the field down to 10 in the dying minutes of the last level. The hand secured an $18,000 pay jump for those who avoided Rusinovas' razor-sharp.
While Rusinovas holds a commanding lead, Vivian Saliba and Vlad Darie boasted the loudest support from their railbirds today. 888poker ambassador Saliba doubled with kings against ace-king during the home stretch, climbing to 43,500,000 by the time for bagging.
She will return to the final day with the third-biggest stack, and if there is one thing that's guaranteed when it comes to deep stages of poker events held in the Amazon Room, it's that the Brazilians will be heard.
Darie, who has already been to the final table of this event — he finished 6th in 2017 — was aiming for the chip lead, but he was a victim of a few preflop all-in contests, particularly when his kings couldn't hold against Dravis' queens.
Darie is, however, an experienced pro with a strong online background, and he showed multiple times during this tournament that he is able to recover and grind his way back. He will start the final day with 26,750,000 (just over 20 big blinds), which puts him in seventh place on the leaderboard.
Add Mark Radoja and Patrick Clarke among the accomplished poker sharps featured in the remaining 10, and it becomes clear that whoever wins the title will have shown some serious poker prowess.
The next blinds will be 600,000/1,200,000 with a 1,200,000 big blind ante and considering the few shallow stacks in the field, it might be a question of no more than a few orbits to bring the tournament down to one table. Make sure to come back to PokerNews at noon for more live updates to keep up with the action.
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 1 | 4 | Thomas Drivas | United States | 58,600,000 | 49 |
| Amazon | 1 | 5 | Keun Kwak | United States | 12,000,000 | 10 |
| Amazon | 1 | 6 | Vlad Darie | Romania | 26,750,000 | 22 |
| Amazon | 1 | 7 | Mark Radoja | Canada | 36,100,000 | 30 |
| Amazon | 1 | 8 | Mario Hofler | United States | 15,200,000 | 13 |
| Amazon | 2 | 1 | Vivian Saliba | Brazil | 43,500,000 | 36 |
| Amazon | 2 | 2 | Rick Alvarado | United States | 21,150,000 | 18 |
| Amazon | 2 | 3 | Aleksandras Rusinovas | Lithuania | 114,625,000 | 96 |
| Amazon | 2 | 6 | Patrick Clarke | Ireland | 36,000,000 | 30 |
| Amazon | 2 | 7 | Uselis Gediminas | United States | 43,400,000 | 36 |
and Rusinovas scooped the pot with his jacks sending Karmatckii to the rail in 12th place and Zhu in 11th place.
turn secured the double for Gediminas and he dragged the pot after the 
hit the felt.
and Karmatckii doubled up with his set of eights.
runout didn't improve his hand.
and Saliba checked again. Gediminas fired 850,000 and Smaron called. Saliba responded by moving all in for 7,275,000. Gediminas folded and Smaron went deep into the tank, then made the call.
