Dan Smith Wins the WPT 5 Diamond Doyle Brunson Classic
A field of 449 entries took their seat in the 2013 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond World Poker Classic and it was Dan Smith who came out victorious. This was his first ever WPT title which also saw him bag $1,161,135 for his efforts and took his total tournament earnings to just over $5.3 million. The No Limit Hold’em main event was a $10,300 buy in and of course attracted some big names, however the Team Ivey pro did what was required at the Bellagio Las Vegas to get his hands on his biggest ever cash prize.
Six players took to the final table and only 21 hands were required for the first player to head to the rails and that was former WPT player of the year Joe Serock and it was Smith himself who took him out. Just a few hands later, on hand 29 it was Barry Hutter that was eliminated leaving just 4 players in the chase. The action slowed down a little and it wasn’t until hand 90 that we saw the next player to leave, and Shaun Suller went in 4th place earning $303,793. Eddy Sabat went home in third place and we were at Heads up play between Smith and Australian Poker Hall of Fame member and WSOP bracelet winner Gary Benson. The start of heads up play saw Smith with a huge 7 to 1 chip lead and it was always going to be an uphill struggle for Benson holding only the equivalent of 14 big blinds. In fact Benson only managed to win one hand during heads up play and on hand 157 it was all over with Benson’s pocket 4’s beating beaten by the K,10 of Smith as Smith hit the 10 on the flop. As well as the cash and the title Smith also landed a $15,400 seat at the end of season WPT World Championships which will be played at the Borgata Atlantic City.
