Darren Elias has won a lot of poker tournaments throughout his career. In fact, the BetMGM Poker Ambassador holds the record for the most World Poker Tour (WPT) titles with four victories and has, for years, dominated the PokerGO Tour. And yet, one of poker's most prestigious prizes – a World Series of Poker bracelet – had eluded him.
On Sunday, June 22, Elias notched his first WSOP bracelet with a win in WSOP Online Bracelet Event #14: NL Hold'em Crazy Eights. The $888 buy-in event drew a field of 1,182 entries to generate a total prize pool of $945,600.
Elias – playing under the screen name 'arrakeen' – took home $170,208 for his efforts.
'It feels amazing'
Elias had a close call earlier on in the series when he finished runner-up in the $10,000 2-7 Single Draw Championship. The newly-crowned champ fell just shy of the bracelet after enduring a nearly seven-hour slugfest heads-up battle with Nick Schulman. While the second-place finish remains nothing to sneeze at, Elias isn't the type to be satisfied with anything but a victory.
Despite the disappointment of another close call, Elias did what all the greats do best: put his head down and kept firing. On Sunday, his persistence paid off as he finally laid claim to the coveted jewelry.
"It feels amazing to finally win my first bracelet," Elias shared on social media. "Closing this one out takes this sting away a bit after finishing 2nd in the $10K 2-7 Championship last week."
