Poker
Dan Smith started playing online poker at the age of 16, before actually reaching the legal gambling age in the US. He is a former chess player who got into college on a chess scholarship, but he decided to stop his studies in 2007 (at 18 years old) to pursue a full-time poker career. [3]
Smith's first cash and victory was in 2008, when he won the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in New York for $101,960. In June 2014, he won the Bellagio Super High Roller $100,000 buy-in event with a grand prize of $2,044,766, his biggest cash up to that point. He has over 74 cashes in live poker tournaments and has won over $55,000,000. [4]
The year 2012 was the turning point of Smith's career. He started the year by winning Aussie Millions 100k Challenge event for $1,012,000 AUD. [5] He went on a tear in April at the EPT Monte Carlo Series. In a span of five days, he won three separate €5000 events for a combined €520,980. [6]
In August of that year, Smith captured the €962,925 first-place prize of the Season 9 EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller. [7]
Smith has had multiple strong showings during the WSOP; in 2015, he finished third in the $10,000 PLO for $369,564 and in 2014, he finished 20th in the $10,000 Main Event for $286,900. In 2012, Smith finished seventh in the Partouche Poker tour for €178,496 [8]
All in all, Smith won six tournaments in 2012 and eventually won the 2012 GPI POY [9] and finished runner up in the Card Player POY to Greg Merson [10] as well as runner up in the Bluff Poy to Marvin Rettenmaier [11]
In December 2013, Smith took down the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1,161,135. [12]
In July 2016, Smith finished second in WSOP $111,111 No Limit Hold'em High Roller for One Drop for $3,078,974. [13]
In September 2014, Smith was ranked first in the world by the Global poker index. [14] In September 2018, he placed third in the WSOP $1 million Big One for One Drop event for $4,000,000. [15] In 2019, Smith finished in third place at the Triton Poker Series Million for Charity poker tournament, which had a buy in of £1,050,000, for over $8.5 Million. [16] In 2023, he finished in third place for the third time at a $1 million buy-in event, at the 2023 WPT million for one drop, earning over $2.8 million. [17]
In June, at the 2022 World Series of Poker, Smith captured his first bracelet. He defeated Christoph Vogelsang in the 25k Heads-UP Championship. Smith was considered to be the best player without a bracelet prior to the win.
As of July 2024, Smith's live tournament winnings exceed $55,000,000. [18]
