Dylan Smith got here inside a couple of spots of profitable a World Poker Tour essential occasion again in Might of 2024, inserting fifth within the WPT Seminole Onerous Rock Poker Showdown essential occasion. Extremely, he didn’t have to attend all that lengthy for one more shot at a WPT title. Simply 188 days after that deep run, Smith managed to navigate his method by a area of 1,435 entries within the $3,500 buy-in essential occasion of the WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open, incomes the title and a career-best rating of $662,200.
“It feels phenomenal. I didn’t know after I would get an opportunity at redemption, and I’m actually grateful that I used to be capable of do it so shortly,” mentioned Smith after closing out the win.
Each of Smith’s WPT ultimate desk finishes have now come on the Seminole Onerous Rock Hollywood in South Florida. In truth, eight of Smith’s high 14 event paydays have come on the venue. He now has almost $3.5 million in profession earnings throughout 103 recorded cashes.
This huge victory additionally awarded 1,440 Card Participant Participant of the 12 months factors. This was Smith’s first title and fourth final-table end of the 12 months. With 2,689 complete factors, Smith now sits inside attain of the highest 100 within the 2024 POY race standings introduced by World Poker.
This $3,500 buy-in occasion featured a $3 million assure. The sizable turnout of 1,435 entries noticed that concentrate on simply surpassed. Ultimately, $4,592,000 in complete prize cash was paid out among the many high 181 finishers. Huge names that ran deep included two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (twenty ninth), 2015 World Collection of Poker essential occasion champion Joe McKeehen (twenty sixth), high POY contender Ren Lin (twenty second), current PGT Texas PLO Roundup excessive curler winner Adam Hendrix (18th), two-time bracelet winner Alexandre Reard (14th), and WPT champions Matthew Wantman (eighth) and Darryll Fish (seventh).
The ultimate day started with Matthew Beinner within the lead and bracelet winner Francis Anderson on the quick stack. Paul Domb was the primary to fall, although, when his pocket jacks bumped into the pocket kings of Beinner. The bigger pair held and Domb was knocked out in sixth place ($140,000).
Anderson doubled up with pocket kings not lengthy after to offer himself some respiration room. Not lengthy after that, Smith doubled by Landon Tice, who had completed runner-up within the WPT Seminole Onerous Rock Poker Showdown essential occasion that Smith ultimate tabled earlier this 12 months. Smith’s pocket aces held towards ace-king to offer an early jolt to his stack.
A few orbits later, Anderson bought all-in once more with pocket queens racing towards the A-Okay of Beinner. The flip introduced a king to go away Anderson in tough form with one card coming. There was no queen on the river and he was eradicated in fifth place ($184,000). He now has almost $3.6 million in lifetime earnings to his title.
fifth Place within the Seminole Onerous Rock for $184,000. Very lucky to have one other deep run in a WPT Fundamental Occasion https://t.co/8ZkIKaSvGW
— Francis Anderson (@FrancisPoker123) December 4, 2024
Tice quickly adopted Anderson to the rail. The Mid-States Poker Tour champion ran pocket nines into the pocket tens of Florian Ribouchon to bust in fourth place. He secured $245,000 for his deep run, the third-largest payday on his resume to date. In consequence, his profession earnings grew to over $2.3 million.
In line with the theme of the ultimate desk so far, the following huge conflict additionally noticed two gamers sq. off in a preflop battle of pocket pairs. This time Florian Ribouchon three-bet shoved from the massive blind with 6
6
. Beinner had min-raised from the button with 9
9
and made the decision for round 26 huge blinds. Beinner wound up with nines filled with jacks after a J410J runout, ending Ribouchon’s run in third place ($325,000). This was the second greatest payday but for the Frenchman, trailing solely the $1,003,554 he earned because the runner-up within the 2023 WSOP ‘Millionaire Maker’ occasion.
Heads-up play kicked off with Beinner holding simply shy of a 2:1 chip lead over Smith. That hole shrunk over the primary 30 or so fingers. Smith then edged into the lead with a rivered straight towards the turned two pair of Beinner. Smith then received one other huge pot, bombing the river with a king-high flush and forcing a fold from Beinner’s turned eight-high straight. After dragging that pot, Smith’s lead had almost twice as many chips as Beinner.
Beinner had slid to 18 huge blinds when the ultimate hand of the event arose. Smith jammed from the button with 76 and Beinner known as with QJ. The flop got here down Okay76 to offer Smith two pair. Beinner turned a gutshot straight draw with the 9, however the 3 on the river ended his run in second place. The $440,000 payout he left with is greater than twice as giant as his earlier high rating of $204,601 which he earned because the runner-up end in a $1,500 Huge O occasion at this 12 months’s WSOP.
Here’s a take a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the ultimate desk:
Place
Participant
Earnings
POY Factors
1
Dylan Smith
$662,200
1440
2
Matthew Beinner
$440,000
1200
3
Florian Ribouchon
$325,000
960
4
Landon Tice
$245,000
720
5
Francis Anderson
$184,000
600
6
Paul Domb
$140,000
480
Picture credit: WPT / Drew Amato.
