On Monday, WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic concluded after 4 days of play at The Palace of Drams in Johannesburg, South Africa. Eugene Du Plessis brought 46% of the chips in play to the final table and had a fantastic chance of taking down the whole thing.
Just as many expected, after several hours of play and all short stacks had hit the rail, he had made it to heads-up against Daniel Brits who was second in chips when the final table kicked off. Brits held a slight lead with 3,40,000 to the 2,690,000 of Eugene Du Plessis and they battled each other for about three hours before the final hand was played...
Eugene Du Plessis bet 200,000 from the button and Daniel Brits called. The flop rolled out Q72 and Brits checked and Eugene Du Plessis bet. Brits, who had a 2-1 chip lead, went all-in and Du Plesis called.
Du Plessis: J7
Brits: Q8
Brits had the best hand but Du Plessis still had 47.07% chance of winning the pot. The turn card was the 9 and Brits remained in the lead. The dealer burned a card and dealt the river card: Q. Brits took down the pot, the tournament and $132,128 in prize money + a seat at the WPT World Championship.
Final table results:
1 Daniel Brits $132,128
2 Eugene du Plessis $92,708
3 Rob Fenner $59,634
4 Dominik Nitsche $44,136
5 Wesley Wiegand $33,130
6 Ronit Chamani $26,504