A Ex-Pat South African Shyster Wins 2007 LA Poker Classic

Eric Hershler (Who?), an unknown entity in the poker world who is originally from South Africa and currently makes a living shystering it up as a lawyer in Los Angeles, won the WPT LA Poker Classic last night after just one hand of heads-up play against tournament favorite JC Tran. The decisive hand had Tran raising to $700k in the big blind with Ac-7s after Hershler limped in from the button with Jd-6d suited. A flop of Ad-Jc-6c gave Tran top pair, which had him leading out with $1.2 mil into Hershler's two-pair. The ex-pat raised Tran all in, and Tran quickly called with the turn and river no help.

For the win, Hershler takes home $2,429,970--the biggest prize in WPT history--and a $25k seat to the WPT finals in April. It was his first ever poker tournament.

It's worth noting that we ended up as no-shows to watch the final table last night because of a really good dinner at Beechwood in Venice with one of our favorite girls. So all we can offer is a photo of the sunset above and we'll leave it up to the "pros" to give you recaps of how the rest of the play went down last night. Head over to WorldPokerTour.com, PokerNews.com, CardPlayer.com or read Tao of Poker's report.

Here's how the payouts went for the final six.

1. Eric Hershler $2,429,970
2. J.C. Tran $1,177,010
3. Jacobo Fernandez $607,490
4. Paul Wasicka $455,615
5. Chau Giang $341,710
6. David Bach $257,425

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