Ahead of the World Championship a 15-year grinder finally gets the big result he has been chasing his entire career.
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The final event in the WPT calendar before the year-ending Championship event was the WPT Seminole Rock’n’Roll Poker Open in Hollywood.
Another huge field of 1,435 entries and it was long-time grinder Dylan Smith who took it down for a career-best score of $662,200.
Smith has been waiting for a career-defining win for 15 years, he almost got it in May when he made his first WPT final table, also in the summer version of this event, but he came 5th for $230,000.
On top of the title and a seat in the WPT World Championship, all the American final tablists got a seat into next week’s $5 million freeroll at the Wynn.
“I feel really grateful,” Smith said. “I mean, I’ve been working at the game for a very very long time, 15-plus years. And it feels like all of my success sort of happened at once. It was a long run, for sure, to get here, and yeah, it just feels incredible to have it all pay off.”
Now all eyes are on the WPT World Championship, the festival for which has already begin and the main event gets underway next week.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dylan Smith | $662,200* |
| 2nd | Matthew Beinner | $440,000 |
| 3rd | Florian Ribouchon | $325,000 |
| 4th | Landon Tice | $245,000 |
| 5th | Francis Anderson | $184,000 |
| 6th | Paul Domb | $140,000 |
* First-place amount includes the winner’s $10,400 entry into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
