Shaun Naidoo has been crowned the champion in the WPT National Johannesburg Main Event after defeating a record-setting field of 327 entries. Naidoo lead almost wire-to-wire on the final day, which started with 29 hopefuls, out of which 27 reached the money.
Werner Gerber bubbled the event when his king-ten made a small straight versus Naidoo’s jack-ten, and the latter went on a tear from there on out. Naidoo held the chip lead for almost the entire day, and busted people left and right.
After a string of eliminations it was sixth place finisher in the most recent WPT Johannesburg, Dean Doucha, who busted in 16th place, and once again it was Naidoo who did the damage. Daniel Lamberti just missed out on the final table with a 13th place finish when he lost a big coin flip with queens versus – once again – Naidoo’s ace-king.
Eugene du Plessis – one of South Africa’s most respected pros – busted in 11th place, after which the final table of 10 was set.
Warren Zackey – fifth on the South African all-time money list – busted in tenth ($3,055), followed by Alvin Pillay in ninth place ($3,927). Simon Yomtov battled with Naidoo for a long time, but eventually it was Jonathan Kalil who busted him (8th – $5,455) with king-jack versus ace-queen.
The action slowed down considerably with seven players remaining, and ultimately it was Mohammad Abu-Hadbah who busted (7th – $7,418). Abu-Hadbah ran ace-jack into Rocky Brooks’ kings, and then there were six.
The number six on the South African all-time money list – Greg Ronaldson – was next to go. Ronaldson ran top pair into Brooks’ two pair and took home $9,600.
The last player to get knocked out was the start-of-the-day chip leader, as Strauss’ elimination (5th – $12,436) initiated a deal discussion. Strauss flopped top two pair but lost when Naidoo hit a flus on the turn after the money went in on the flop.
Here are the final payout numbers:
1st – Shaun Naidoo – 636,130 ($43,333)
2nd – Rocky Brooks – 500,000 ($34,060)
3rd – Jonathan Kalil – 400,000 ($27,248)
4th – Prashanth Mergu – 350,000 ($23,842)
Naidoo captured his first big tournament result and confessed after it was all said and done that he only plays two tournaments per year.
“The World Poker Tour is the best tournament in South Africa, and I only play cash games besides that,” Naidoo said, as he received the trophy and $43,333.
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