Dylan Smith Wins World Poker Tour Seminole Rock’n’Roll Poker Open Main Event

Dylan Smith came within a few spots of winning a World Poker Tour main event back in May of 2024, placing fifth in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event. Incredibly, he didn’t have to wait all that long for another shot at a WPT title. Just 188 days after that deep run, Smith managed to navigate his way through a field of 1,435 entries in the $3,500 buy-in main event of the WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open, earning the title and a career-best score of $662,200.

“It feels phenomenal. I didn’t know when I would get a chance at redemption, and I am really grateful that I was able to do it so quickly,” said Smith after closing out the win.

Both of Smith’s WPT final table finishes have now come at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in South Florida. In fact, eight of Smith’s top 14 tournament paydays have come at the venue. He now has nearly $3.5 million in career earnings across 103 recorded cashes.

This big victory also awarded 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was Smith’s first title and fourth final-table finish of the year. With 2,689 total points, Smith now sits within reach of the top 100 in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This $3,500 buy-in event featured a $3 million guarantee. The sizable turnout of 1,435 entries saw that target easily surpassed. In the end, $4,592,000 in total prize money was paid out among the top 181 finishers. Big names that ran deep included two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (29th), 2015 World Series of Poker main event champion Joe McKeehen (26th), top POY contender Ren Lin (22nd), recent PGT Texas PLO Roundup high roller winner Adam Hendrix (18th), two-time bracelet winner Alexandre Reard (14th), and WPT champions Matthew Wantman (8th) and Darryll Fish (7th).

The final day began with Matthew Beinner in the lead and bracelet winner Francis Anderson on the short stack. Paul Domb was the first to fall, though, when his pocket jacks ran into the pocket kings of Beinner. The larger pair held and Domb was knocked out in sixth place ($140,000).

Anderson doubled up with pocket kings not long after to give himself some breathing room. Not long after that, Smith doubled through Landon Tice, who had finished runner-up in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event that Smith final tabled earlier this year. Smith’s pocket aces held against ace-king to give an early jolt to his stack.

A couple of orbits later, Anderson got all-in again with pocket queens racing against the A-K of Beinner. The turn brought a king to leave Anderson in rough shape with one card coming. There was no queen on the river and he was eliminated in fifth place ($184,000). He now has nearly $3.6 million in lifetime earnings to his name.

5th Place in the Seminole Hard Rock for $184,000. Very fortunate to have another deep run in a WPT Main Event https://t.co/8ZkIKaSvGW

— Francis Anderson (@FrancisPoker123) December 4, 2024

Tice soon followed 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 so far. As a result, his career earnings grew to over $2.3 million.

In keeping with the theme of the final table to this point, the next big clash also saw two players square off in a preflop battle of pocket pairs. This time Florian Ribouchon three-bet shoved from the big blind with 66. Beinner had min-raised from the button with 99 and made the call for around 26 big blinds. Beinner wound up with nines full of jacks after a J410J runout, ending Ribouchon’s run in third place ($325,000). This was the second best payday yet for the Frenchman, trailing only the $1,003,554 he earned as the runner-up in the 2023 WSOP ‘Millionaire Maker’ event.

Heads-up play kicked off with Beinner holding just shy of a 2:1 chip lead over Smith. That gap shrunk over the first 30 or so hands. Smith then edged into the lead with a rivered straight against the turned two pair of Beinner. Smith then won another big 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 nearly twice as many chips as Beinner.

Beinner had slid to 18 big blinds when the final hand of the tournament arose. Smith jammed from the button with 76 and Beinner called with QJ. The flop came down K76 to give Smith two pair. Beinner turned a gutshot straight draw with the 9, but the 3 on the river ended his run in second place. The $440,000 payout he left with is more than twice as large as his previous top score of $204,601 which he earned as the runner-up finish in a $1,500 Big O event at this year’s WSOP.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: WPT / Drew Amato.