Dan Smith Denies Daniel Negreanu $100K Title at Bellagio
After a humbling Poker Masters that saw him lay down the gauntlet and lose a series of side bets, Daniel Negreanu said he needed to rededicate himself to learning his craft as the top players were "just too good."
It appears any time spent in the lab may have done him some good, as he made it to heads-up play in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic $100,000 Super High Roller. However, Dan Smith forced "Kid Poker" to settle for second place and $936,000 while Smith claimed $1,404,000 for first.
It's the third-biggest career cash for Smith, who now has over $19 million in earnings, and an impressive third title in an event with a $100K buy-in.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Smith | $1,404,000 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | $936,000 |
| 3 | Stefan Schillhabel | $624,000 |
| 4 | Isaac Haxton | $390,000 |
| 5 | Sergio Aido | $312,000 |
| 6 | Bryn Kenney | $234,000 |
The only $100K event in a schedule packed with high rollers drew 39 entries and paid out six places. The closest thing to live reporting for the event came via the Twitter account of Negreanu, and he said Bryn Kenney was the first player to bust in the money when he lost a flip with sixes to the ace-queen of Stefan Schillhabel.
Negreanu then doubled through Isaac Haxton in a cooler spot where Haxton flopped aces up and Negreanu a set of fives. That gave Negreanu and Smith the top two stacks five-handed.
A short-stacked Sergio Aido fell to Smith in fifth, and Haxton sent his remaining chips to Negreanu with A?6? against 9x9x.
Schillhabel then managed to climb from micro-stack with a few big blinds to the chip lead courtesy of a handful of doubles. However, the German ran ace-jack into Smith's ace-queen and wound up short again. From there, he seemed to have binked a lucky double when he flopped a boat with Jx10x in what sounded like an all-in preflop pot against Smith's aces, but an ace hit the turn to end Schillhabel's comeback bid.
Negreanu said he was slightly down going into heads-up play but managed to get his chips in ahead with Qx10x on a Jx10x4x flop against Smith's AxKx. A queen hit the river to give Smith the winning straight.
While a nice score for Smith, it doesn't quite match the return on investment of his best result either at Bellagio or in this series. Back in 2013, Smith took down the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event for $1,161,135.
For more on the history of Five Diamond and other relevant info previewing this year's WPT Main Event, check out PokerNews' primer.
Here's a look at all of the winners from the preliminary events thus far:
| Event # | Tournament | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $560 NLHE | Martin Zamani | $27,426 |
| 2 | $1,100 NLHE | Rok Gostisa | $40,970 |
| 3 | $1,100 Shot Clock | Ed O'Connell | $31,234 |
| 4 | $1,100 Seniors | Mike Landers | $36,842 |
| 5 | $1,100 PLO | Scott Clements | $21,184 |
| 6 | $1,100 Tag Team | Mark Hammond and Jean-Luc Weller | $16,151 total |
| 7 | 1,620 Six-Max | Jared Jaffee | $84,384 |
| $10K 1 | $10,000 NLHE | Sergio Aido | $128,800 |
| $25K 1 | $25,000 NLHE | Jason Koon | $289,950 |
There are still plenty of big events to come. The schedule still holds four more $25K high rollers, two more $5Ks and the $10,400 Main Event. Stay tuned to PokerNews this week as we bring you more coverage from Five Diamond.
Photo courtesy of WPT.
