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Chad Eveslage is batting a thousand at live final tables in 2021. The poker pro from Muncie, Indiana has now made three Card Player Player of the Year qualified final tables this year and has managed to come away with the title each and every time. Eveslage’s latest triumph came in the 2021 World Poker Tour Venetian $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. Eveslage outlasted the massive field of 1,199 entries in the event to secure his first WPT main tour title and the top prize of $910,370.

“This whole tournament I kept going all in and winning,” Eveslage told WPT reporters when asked about his victory. “I think I’m really good but anybody would have won with my luck. It feels like I’m in the Twilight Zone, where the guy is in the casino and he can’t lose.”

He had previously won a $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em side event at the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open series to earn $101,572 back in January. He went on to take down the $25,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown festival for another $767,576 .

The final day of this event began with Eveslage atop the leaderboard. Arguably the story of the final table was the fact that three female players made the top six, a feat that had not been achieved in the 19-year history of the WPT prior to this event. Kyna England, Daniela Rodriguez, and Kitty Kuo were the three shortest stacks to start the day, but they all had a shot at becoming the second female player to win an open WPT main tour event, following in the footsteps of 2017 WPT Playground $3,500 CAD no-limit hold’em main event champion Ema Zajmovic.

Heads-up play began with the two players within a handful of big blinds of each other, with each having more than 117 big blinds when their final showdown began. It took just two hands for the decisive pot of the tournament to take place. Eveslage raised to 500,000 from the button with Q 9 Suit. Liang three-bet from the big blind to 1,850,000. Eveslage called and the flop came down J 10 10. Liang bet 1,300,000 with his flopped trips and Eveslage called with his open-ended straight draw. The K on the turn saw Liang bet 3,500,000. Eveslage called with his turned straight. The 8 river elicited an all-in shove from Liang, and Eveslage called for his tournament life with his king-high straight to beat Liang’s trips and secure the massive pot.

Despite doubling up, the 20:1 chip lead was too much for Liang to overcome and Eveslage closed out victory with pocket queens, earning himself his very first WPT title and $910,370 in prize money. Liang would have to settle for second place and $606,890.

WPT Venetian Final Table Payouts