American professional poker player Dylan Wilkerson became the champion of the World Poker Tour Emperors Palace Poker Classic, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is his first World Poker Title. Back in February, Wilkerson finished second at the Fallsview Poker Classic event, held in Niagara Falls, winning $228,364. Just a month later, he took second position in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars in San Jose, claiming $728,650 of the total prize pool. This was actually his biggest live cash. What is more, the American took part in two more final tables at WSOP events, gaining $150,000. In other words, this year has been quite successful for the San Francisco-born poker player. And he has finally managed to achieve one of his biggest goals – to win a WPT event.
A total of 166 players took part in the Johannesburg event. They were quickly reduced to 17, who were seated at the final table on Sunday afternoon with Aaron Overton holding the majority of chips. He was followed by Wilkerson. Generally speaking, apart from Overton, who took fourth place at the WPT Borgata Championships earlier this year, and Wilkerson, who, as already mentioned, performed quite well throughout 2014, the other players were not particularly experienced.
Darryn Limpan was the first to be eliminated by Chris Convery and Aaron Overton was eliminated by Diane Crous. Convery was the next to leave the table when his hand just could not stand a chance against Wilkerson’s. The latter also sent Crous to third position and, thus, faced Richard Barnard in a heads-up play. The South African player took $54,721 of the total pool prize for being part of the final three.
At the beginning of the heads-up play, Barnard and Wilkerson held almost the same amount of chips – 2.52 million and 2.46 million, respectively. Yet, Wilkerson rapidly took the lead. In the end, Barnard, holding K-Q, called an all-in. Wilkerson’s A-Q and the board showing 10-6-6-Q-5 sent his opponent to second place. Barnard took the total amount of $85,651 for his runner-up position.
Currently, Dylan Wilkerson’s live tournament winnings add up to $1,573,104. He has taken part in 12 final tables and has one big win in his career. At present, he is 44th in the 2014 Poker Player of the Year chart and 47th in the BLUFF Power Rank.
Although the American poker player, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Economics, took the amount of $147,509 for finishing first at the World Poker Tour Emperors Palace Poker Classic event, it was certainly his position that he appreciated most. As already mentioned, Wilkerson has always aspired to win a major poker tournament.
