“I’m very happy to win a bracelet in stud hi-lo” said Nikolay Fal after his Stud8 win on Saturday and the emotion was clear on his face when he was taking his winner’s photos. The Russian player who says stud is his favorite form of poker bested a final table that included mixed-game beasts Yuval Bronshtein and Jon Turner.
With non-Hold’em events generally drawing smaller fields, the $1,500 Stud8 game saw 611 entries before registration closed, generating $815,685 in prizes. Fal’s winning share of that came to $153,730 with runner-up Christian Roberts of Venezuela the only other player to score six-figures.
It was a grueling win for Fal after an epic heads-up against Roberts that went on for more than an hour. It was Fal’s first bracelet after 13 previous cashes in WSOP events.
Final 9 Finishers in Event #69: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better
| Place | Player | Home | Prize ($USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Nikolay Fal | Russia | $153,730 |
| 2 |  Christian Roberts | Venezuela | $102,492 |
| 3 |  Joseph Hertzog | United States | $70,288 |
| 4 | Kenneth Kemple | United States | $49,127 |
| 5 | Dekel Balas | United States | $35,006 |
| 6 |  Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | $25,442 |
| 7 |  Nikolay Ponomarev | United Kingdom | $18,866 |
| 8 | Jon Turner | United States | $14,280 |
| 9 | Joey Couden | United States | $11,038 |
Fal Wins in His Favorite Game
Fal is no stranger to the top spot in poker tournaments. Coming into the Stud8 win he had 22 previous top spots on his Hendon Mob resume, mostly from series in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Runner-up Roberts brought the biggest stack into the final day of play while Fal was languishing near the bottom of the counts to start the final day with 17 players. Among the other players to make the final day of this one were Eli Elezra and Canadian mixed-game specialist Thomas Taylor.
Taylor, who brought the fourth biggest stack into the final day, had to settle for 12th place in this one for just over $7k, but he may well be the best Canadian in the game right now without a bracelet to his name. This was his second deep run in this year’s series after a heart-breaking 2nd place in Event #48: Pot-limit Omaha. Additionally, in the last couple of years, Taylor has made multiple final tables and deep runs in Vegas and it seems only a matter of time before he gets through to the win.
Once they got down to the final table of 9 players, the pace of play ground to a halt and it would be more than 10 hours before Fal finally secured his win. With Ryutaro Suzuki falling in 10th place just before 3 pm to set up the unofficial final table, it would be later than 1 am before the final hand was dealt.
Along the way Jon Turner ended his day in 8th after Fal hit the wheel on him to scoop a pot, and Yuval Bronshtein ended up 6th when Kenneth Kemple had the best pair in a hand with no low pot awarded. The game finally went heads-up around 7 hours later after Joseph Hertzog bagged the biggest five-figure score with 3rd place for just over $70k.
There was still about an hour to go in the battle between Roberts and Fal. The Russian winner started heads-up with the lead and never gave it up, though Roberts came close a couple of times.
Roberts was down to fumes near the end and managed to find a double shortly before the end, but it was too little, too late for him as Fal hit two-pair and an 85 low over the pair and bricked low for Roberts in the final hand to take it all down. The win pushed Fal’s lifetime earnings to nearly $2.5 million.
