Some things in life come easy. Nick Schulman’s seventh World Series of Poker bracelet wasn’t one of them.

Schulman was the final player standing in the $10,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw Championship, adding $497,356 to his $23.7 million lifetime tournament cash pile. He also won this very event in 2009 and 2012.

The win puts him in a seven-way tie for seventh of the all-time bracelet list with Men Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, Billy Baxter, John Hennigan, Scott Seiver, and most recently Benny Glaser, who won two bracelets in a row last week.

The event attracted 233, a record for the Championship, and required an extra day to run to completion. Not only that, the heads-up battle with Darren Elias was a true slog , taking eight hours with no dinner break. Schulman compared Elias to the “end boss” of a video game, and became emotional afterwards giving kudos to him.

“Darren is kind of the best at this game, you know? I mean, it was really an honor to play with him. I feel a little bit emotional about it, just because I’ve never felt like, if I lose heads up or come in second, like it’s just, it’s all good, you know? Because this guy is just, he’s super tough and just a great guy, you know.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins a tournament every summer for the next six years. It’s all kind of crazy. It became very crap-shooty at the end, but that’s real end-boss territory. I’m honored to somehow come out on top, against him, in the biggest no-limit deuce tournament ever. And it’s just no surprise that he was there.”

But as it stands today, Elias is on the shortlist for best player without a WSOP bracelet. This was the third time he came close to winning one in this event. Elias now has a runner-up, two third place finishes, and a ninth-place finish in the $10,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw Championship.

As a poker commentator for the WSOP and PokerGO, Schulman is one of poker’s larger and popular personalities. Wining his seventh WSOP bracelet came at a perfect time for the 40-year-old poker professional because this is the week players are being nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame.

This is the first year of his eligibility, and it’s a good bet that Schulman will at least make this year’s shortlist, and has a good chance as anyone to be enshrined in the Poker Hall of Fame after all the votes are tallied next month (nominations are open until June 15 via the WSOP’s webpage found here).

No matter what happens with that vote, Schulman is living a sort of poker dream.

“I’ve just been around so many great players, and I’ve just just kind of seen them all,” he said. “It’s my favorite game to play. And I think anytime you’re doing something that you’re really enjoying, it’s, you know, it’s good.”