After coming close twice this year, poker professional Dylan Wilkerson broke through in Johannesburg, South Africa, this afternoon in taking down the World Poker Tour Emperors Palace Poker Classic.
The 166 player field had been whittled down to 17 players by the start of action on Sunday afternoon (early morning in the U. S.) with Aaron Overton at the helm of the survivors with 752,000 in chips. The rest of the field was tightly packed together as even the short stack, longtime fan favorite Lacey Jones, held 132K in chips to start the day. Along with Overton and Jones, such names as Wilkerson (185K), Seth Berger (244K) and Richard Barnard (456K) were among the 17 players vying for the title.
Not unexpectedly, Jones was pushing her stack early in an attempt to get back in the game. The problem with this was that no one wanted to look her up and give her any chips that the longtime pro could use against the field. Although she wasn’t getting called, Jones was able to slowly chip her way up through the first hour to sit around 175K in chips.
Wilkerson, meanwhile, was getting aggressive with the field. After Jaime Vileta moved all in from middle position and Roman Szymonowicz made the call out of the cutoff, Wilkerson moved all in over the top off the button. The blinds got out of the way and, with Vileta already putting his chips in the center, Szymonowicz decided to call off his remaining stack. The three men all turned up their cards, with a few surprises in the mix:
Wilkerson: K-K
Szymonowicz: A-J
Vileta: Q-J
A J-6-3 flop gave both Szymonowicz and Vileta a pair of Jacks but Wilkerson was still in the lead. That changed with a Queen on the turn, however, and stunningly Vileta (with Queens up) was one card away for making a huge triple up to get him back in the game. Just as sudden as Vileta’s ascension was how it came crashing down with another trey on the river, giving Wilkerson the hand and the double knockout of both Vileta (15th place) and Szymonowicz (14th).
Now in contention with over 600K in chips, Wilkerson would go to work on the fan favorite Jones. Jones moved her stack all in pre-flop from early position and Wilkerson made the call from the middle position, turning up an A-Q against Jones’ A-J. Once the board came seven high, Jones’ chances at this WPT title would come up short as Jones left the Emperors Palace Casino Hotel in 11th place ($7376) and the final ten players came together at the unofficial final table.
While Wilkerson had three knockouts coming to the final table, he hadn’t been able to close the ground with Overton. With 10 players remaining, Overton was sitting on a 1.321 million stack that vastly outpaced Wilkerson (794K). After Wilkerson doubled up Chris Convery on the fifth hand of the unofficial final table, that lead grew even larger.
Wilkerson was undaunted, however, getting those chips back and more in doubling up through Cape Connexion in a classic race. After Wilkerson four-bet his entire stack and Connexion called, Connexion’s pocket tens were ahead of Wilkerson’s Big Slick. A 6♥ 3♥ 2♥ flop extended Connexion’s lead (one of his tens was the heart), but Wilkerson struck gold on the turn with the K♣. Looking for a heart or another ten on the river, Connexion instead saw a 3♦ that saw nearly his entire stack absorbed by Wilkerson; Connexion would depart on the next hand in eighth place while Wilkerson took over the chip lead.
Once Berger was eliminated on the official final table bubble in seventh place, Wilkerson’s challengers had been established. Wilkerson, Barnard and Chris Convery were the only players over the million chip mark at the official final table, while Overton, Diane Crous and Darryn Lipman were battling to get back in the event.
The official final table itself was a rather rapid affair. Lipman and Overton were gone before the dinner break and, after a short dinner break, Convery and Crous would follow them out the door. Down to heads up play, Barnard and Wilkerson were nearly even in chips (2.52 million to 2.46 million) but Wilkerson immediately took charge of the action. Within a dozen hands, Wilkerson had taken a 900K chip lead and, on the final hand, Barnard would call off his chips with K-Q against Wilkerson’s A-Q. The 10-6-6-Q-5 board did nothing to improve Barnard’s station, eliminating him from the tournament and giving the championship to Wilkerson.
1. Dylan Wilkerson, $147,509
2. Richard Barnard, $85,651
3. Diane Crous, $54,721
4. Chris Convery, $38,543
5. Aaron Overton, $29,740
6. Darryn Lipman, $22,602
It was a case of “third time lucky” for Wilkerson. In February and March of this year, Wilkerson was the runner up in two WPT events, the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic and the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star. Now Wilkerson has captured that elusive goal of putting his name on the WPT Champions’ Cup and becoming a WPT champion.
