Tom 'lultaxpayers' Hall wins first WSOP bracelet

After the dust settled following 12.5 hours of play, Tom "lultaxpayers" Hall came out on top in WSOP Online Event #12: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack to net the first-place prize of $176,920 along with a coveted gold WSOP bracelet. He defeated Daniel "DurdyDan512" Marin in about a level and a half of heads-up play with "ckraiseblff" rounding out the top three.

A total of 1,754 players entered this tournament with 937 re-entries to generate a prize pool of $1,210,950 that was split amongst the top 371 finishers, each of whom secured a minimum of $848.00. David "lotsoffish" Lee was the last individual not to see a return on their investment after getting knocked out in 372nd place.

Play increased in pace as the day wore on, and the blinds became more and more expensive. As a result, it did not take long for the final table of eight to be set with the elimination of "NickLeeson" in 9th place when their king-queen fell to Marin's pocket tens.

Brandon "HawkHeaven" Forbes was the first out the door at the final table when his king-queen suited could not stand up to Hall's king-deuce offsuit when he hit a deuce on the river.

Next to go was Tyler "Tslate21" Hirschfeld, who was eliminated by "ckraiseblff" when his ace-eight was out-kicked by his opponent's ace-ten.

Brock "ohmyguan" Wilson and "NeverGambol" were sent to the rail in sixth and fifth, respectively, followed closely by Steven "rAiseAhippie" Touitou in fourth when he lost a flip with ace-jack versus "ckraiseblff"'s pocket sevens.

Even after busting Touitou, "ckraiseblff" was still a short stack and was next to go when his king-deuce was stomped by Marin's superior ace-nine on a jack-high board.

That elimination set up a heads-up match between Hall and Marin, with the former starting with a 2-to-1 chip lead over Marin. After about a level and a half (around 20 minutes) of heads-up play, Hall had dwindled Marin's stack to gain a 5-to-1 chip lead over him until they got the rest of it in the middle, where Hall scooped with a flopped pair of aces to leave Marin with the runner-up consolation prize of $109,349.

With this knockout, Hall was awarded the first-place prize of $176,920, along with his first WSOP gold bracelet! Congratulations to him on his victory! This latest win will further improve his already-impressive poker resume as it will be his fourth-largest score, although it is his largest score since 2018 when he placed fourth in a $5,300 PartyPoker Millions Event for $394,965.

Final table results:
Place Player Country Prize
1 Thomas "lultaxpayers" Hall United Kingdom $176,920
2 Daniel "DurdyDan512" Marin United States $109,349
3 "ckraiseblff" United States $80,286
4 Steven "rAiseAhippie" Touitou France $59,458
5 NeverGambol United States $44,442
6 Brock "ohmyguan" Wilson United States $33,422
7 Tyler "Tslate21" Hirschfeld United States $25,309
8 Brandon "hawkheaven" Forbes United States $19,375