The final World Poker Tour stop ahead of the WPT World Championship has come to an end, with Dylan Smith emerging victorious in the 2024 $3,500 World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship.
Smith defeated Matthew Beinner heads-up on a star-studded final table to put his name on the Mike Sexton Champions Cup and pocket a cool $662,200 after besting a field of 1,435 entries.
Smith had reached the WPT final table back in April, also at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, but the event concluded in Las Vegas at the end of May. While he finished fifth then, he was able to finish the job this time around.
“I’m exhausted,” Smith told Poker.Org after claiming the title. “Matt is a phenomenal player and I really had to be on my A-game to beat him. I’m happy to redeem myself from last time.
“I liked playing it (the final table) right away. I was in the flow of things. Last time, we drove across country and played after a five or six-day road trip.
“For me, waking up in my own bed and having a good morning routine is really important. I feel like I play a lot better when that’s the case.”
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For the 23-year-old Beinner, it was, by far, the biggest run of his career, more than doubling his career Hendon Mob earnings and picking up $440,000 in his first WPT cash.
“I did my best and had a blast playing heads-up with Dylan,” Beinner told Poker.Org. “Congrats to him, he’s an amazing player and things didn’t go my way heads-up.”
| Place | Player | Prize | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Dylan Smith | $662,200 | USA |
| 2nd | Matthew Beinner | $440,000 | USA |
| 3rd | Florian Ribouchon | $325,000 | France |
| 4th | Landon Tice | $245,000 | USA |
| 5th | Francis Anderson | $184,000 | USA |
| 6th | Paul Domb | $140,000 | USA |
Paul Domb was the first one to go, having five-bet jammed pocket jacks into Beinner’s cold four-bet with pocket kings. The board ran out ten-high and the Florida local took home a career-high $140,000. In competitive poker, players are eliminated one by one during the main event until a winner is crowned. Learn more about how poker tournaments work here.
Francis Anderson, making an appearance on back-to-back (nine-man) WPT final tables, went out in 5th place for $184,000, the third-largest score of his storied career. Beinner was again the one to do the business, winning a classic flip with ace-king against Anderson’s pocket queens, binking his king on the turn.
In fourth place was Landon Tice, who has enjoyed playing at SHR after winning SHRPO $10K High Roller for $246,100 back in August. He would take home a similar score, pocketing $245,000 after a phenomenal run.
Having run ace-king into Smith’s pocket aces a short time before, Tice was able to double his way back into the race after falling to just four big blinds. However, he couldn’t crawl all the way back as he would run pocket nines into Florian Ribouchon’s pocket tens. The only foreign player at the table would see his tens hold to go to three-handed play.
It took another two-and-a-half hours before Smith and Beinner would engage in their heads-up battle. Ribouchon would be the unfortunate party, running pocket sixes into Beinner’s pocket nines, something that can happen even with perfect poker tournament strategy. A nine in the window sealed the deal, sending the Frenchman to the rail with a healthy $325,000 in his pocket, by far his second-biggest score of his career.
Though Beinner would come into heads-up play with a two-to-one chip lead, it would be Smith that came out on top after a two-hour back-and-forth clash.
Eventually, Beinner would get short and shove queen-jack off into the Smith’s seven-six suited. Smith would flop a seven and turn two pair to seal his long-awaited maiden WPT victory.