The final table is set for the World Poker Tour stop at the Emperors Palace Poker Classic on Monday, with the overall Day One leader back atop the leaderboard and the defending champion (and Day Two chip leader) still in the hunt for a historic repeat.
27 players came to the tables in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday afternoon (early morning U. S. time), looking to reach the six handed WPT final table. The defending champion, Dominik Nitsche, was in the lead at the start of action but, only a few hands into play, overall Day One chip leader Eugene du Plessis had retaken the chip lead. He first took a sizeable stack of chips from Warren Zackey to pass Nitsche, then surged to 670,000 in chips in defeating Benjamin Cole.
The news wasn’t as good for some of the short stacks at the start of the day’s action on Sunday. Ben Cade would eliminate Gilad Levy in 27th place and Levy was quickly followed by a host of players. Miguel Milhiero, Nic Ioannoy, Gaelle Baumann, Warren Zackey, Thomas Koral, Bartolome Gomila Romero, Nick Zakhem and Jason Strauss (a member of last year’s final table) all were gone within the first hour and a half of play (in 26th through 19th places, respectively), leaving only twelve more players to be eliminated to end the day’s activities.
After that flurry of departures, the players did settle down for some time. Nitsche seemed to be a target for some of the players throughout the early action, although he got off to a good start in taking a pot off of Matt Lawrence to get up to 650K in chips. He cut some of those off to Harold Brooks and Aston Soon Shiong over the course of a half hour, though, to drop back to just under 600K in chips, which was still good for the second place slot as the afternoon wore on.
A new contender would emerge for this WPT championship in the mid-afternoon. On a board of J-10-5-Q, Cole check-raised Daniel Brits and Brits moved all in. Cole immediately called, tabling pocket Queens for the turned set, while Brits tossed his K-Q on the table for top pair and an open ended straight draw. Screaming for an Ace on the river, Brits was rewarded with the A♠, sending a stunned Cole to the rail in 17th place and shooting Brits up the leaderboard with 730,000 in chips.
Nitsche would regain the lead as darkness fell on the African savannah. On a Q♦ 4♥ 2♦ flop, Nitsche would check his option to Shiong, who bet out 26,000 into the pot. Nitsche hit him with a check raise and, not slowing a minute, Shiong popped him back. Nitsche moved all in at this time and, after Shiong made the call, showed his pocket fours for the set against Shiong’s A♦ K♦ nut flush draw. The flush would never come for Shiong, with the 10♠ on the turn and an 8♥ on the river, and Nitsche would see his chip stack soar over a million (Shiong would be eliminated on the next hand in 14th place).
It would take almost three hours just to work down to nine handed play and, after du Plessis eliminated in Mauro De Rose in tenth place, the final nine men went to a dinner break with du Plessis back at the helm of the leaderboard. It would take another hour before Nitsche eliminated Brooks in ninth place and Lum in eighth to put some much needed chips into his stack (which now sat at 900K). Once Matt Lawrence hit the rails in seventh place (his pocket sevens trounced by Brits’ pocket nines), the final table was set:
1. Eugene du Plessis, 2.635 million
2. Daniel Brits, 1.225 million
3. Dominik Nitsche, 875,000
4. Wesley Wiegand, 365,000
5. Rob Fenner, 335,000
6. Ronit Chamani, 310,000
All eyes at this final table will be on Nitsche, who is looking to become the first player to ever defend his championship on the WPT tournament trail. Wiegand, who was quiet through much of the day’s play, was also at this final table last year and will be looking to improve on his fourth place finish. There is also a slim hope at seeing the first woman to win an open WPT event in Chamani, although she has a load of work if that is going to happen.
The final table will begin play at noon at the Emperors Palace on Monday (6AM Eastern Time), with the eventual champion walking away with the seat to the 2014 WPT Championship and a $132,128 first place prize.
