On Sunday, Abdool Essa captured the WPTDeepStacks Johannesburg Main Event title from Emperors Palace in South Africa. Essa topped a field of 356 entries to win the R668,000 ($50,521) first-place prize. In the end, Essa agreed to a deal with Jason Strauss that saw Strauss take second place and a payday of R660,000 ($49,916).
WPTDeepStacks Johannesburg Final Table Results
1st: Abdool Essa – R668,000 ($50,521)**
2nd: Jason Strauss – R660,000 ($49,916)**
3rd: Hennie Appel – R600,000 ($45,379)*
4th: JP Okes – R256,000 ($19,361)
5th: Leon Jordaan – R190,000 ($14,370)
6th: Uriel Levy – R148,000 ($11,193)
7th: Des Godfrey – R125,440 ($9,487)
8th: David Rosenthal – R103,000 ($7,790)
9th: Kapil Bookhan – R82,000 ($6,202)
**Denotes a heads-up deal.
*Denotes payout was a result of a three-way deal.
Essa has had success in a WPT-branded event at Emperors Palace before. In fact, he’s had a handful of results from WPT events at the property. First, Essa finished 31st in the WPT National Johannesburg Main Event in April 2015. Last October, when WPTDeepStacks first came to Emperors Palace, Essa won the opening event, placed fifth in the sixth event, and then finished 15th in the WPTDeepStacks Johannesburg Main Event. The victory this time around was Essa’s largest live tournament score to date, according to his profile on HendonMob.com.
Thirty-four players returned for Day 3 of WPTDeepStacks Johannesburg and Essa was out in front. The first order of business was bursting the money bubble, as only the top 27 players would be paid. That happened with the elimination of Rocky Brooks in 28th place, and it was Hennie Appel sending Brooks to the rail.
Although Essa slipped out of the chip lead, he never really gave up a big stack. Then with 14 players left, Essa took out both Deochand Nundloll and Theo Hunter on the same hand to bring the field down to 12. With 11 players left, Essa sent Werner Smit to the rail to set the unofficial final table of 10.
After Jedd Kossew went out in 10th, Strauss busted Kapil Bookhan in ninth. Leon Jordaan then eliminated David Rosenthal in eighth, then Essa and Jordaan chopped up Des Godfrey in seventh place.
Strauss busted Uriel Levy in sixth place and extended his chip lead. Leon Jordaan went out next in fifth place.
During four-handed play, Essa made his move back to the chip lead. Even though Appel busted JP Okes in fourth place, Essa was still out in front heading into three-handed play. That’s when the final three players agree to a deal that would adjust the payouts of the top three places. The new amounts were to be R688,000 to first, R640,000 to second, and R600,000 to third. Originally, the payouts had R1.03 million to first, R561,000 to second, and R337,000 to third.
After the deal, Appel jumped into the lead, but then Essa took it right back. Appel then busted in third, leaving Essa and Strauss heads up for the title. But before heads-up play began, Essa and Strauss agreed to a new deal that gave Essa the win and a first-place payout of R668,000. Strauss took second place for R660,000.
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