After 15 Years, Dylan Smith’s WPT Success Happened All at Once

Back in May, Dylan Smith drove across the country from his home in Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas. While there was an entire summer of poker ahead of him, Smith had business to finish before digging into two full months of poker at the televised final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.

Smith entered that final table filled with confidence, despite a table full of poker players equally hungry for their first WPT title – Jesse Lonis, Landon Tice and Josh Reichard among them. The stage was so bright that Smith had to find shades, and whether it was the moment or a couple of unfortunate runouts against Reichard, that night in late May at HyperX Arena in Las Vegas ended in a profitable, if slightly disappointing fifth place finish.

But if there’s one thing the 33-year-old Smith has in abundance, beyond his abilities at the poker table, it’s patience. And he’d only have to wait a little bit longer, all things considered.

Smith’s first WPT final table was another data point in a sharp spike on Smith’s career results that took a long time for him to reach. After starting his poker career in earnest at the age of 18, everything seemed to come together in a hurry when the calendar turned over to 2023 as Smith entered his early 30s.

There were a pair of high roller wins in January 2023 – one at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, another at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. Smith followed that with a pair of runner-ups in high rollers and a 12th place finish in that year’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown festival.

Smith improved on that finish by seven spots earlier this year, and then, upon the WPT’s return to South Florida for the WPT Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open, Smith beat that 5th place finish by another four spots – securing his first major title on Wednesday as a WPT Champion.

“I feel really grateful,” Smith said. “I mean, I’ve been working at the game for a very very long time, 15-plus years. And it feels like all of my success sort of happened at once. It was a long run, for sure, to get here, and yeah, it just feels incredible to have it all pay off.”

A breakout a decade-and-a-half in the making has finally come to fruition for Smith. With his WPT victory and final table, coupled with a fourth-place finish in the $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship over the summer, there’s no longer anything standing between Smith and the poker career he’s always wanted.

Something about Wednesday’s WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open simply felt differently, from the very beginning. Smith and Tice, who also made a second consecutive WPT final table in Hollywood, battled it out in a massive pot early on with Smith’s pocket aces holding off Tice’s ace-king. From that point on, Smith was directly in the mix.

Despite the bond the pair formed after their shared impressive performances, Smith was all too happy to bolster his title chances by any means necessary.

“I mean, I’m here to win. I love Landon, and I wish him the best in every tournament he plays – when it’s not against me,” said Smith. “So I was thrilled to be on the right side of that cooler, for sure.”

That’s not to say that victory would come easy by any stretch. Matthew Beinner, a 23-year-old who has had several brushes with major titles over the first few years of his own career, took over the final table for long stretches Wednesday and extended a chip lead of three-to-one once they got down to heads-up play.

After running a tremendous and ultimately unsuccessful five-bet bluff with against Beinner’s pocket kings earlier at the final table, Smith buckled down and ultimately won the big hands when it counted as he came from behind to win the heads-up match.

“I knew he was going to have enough bluffs there that I’m going to win the spot enough of the time to make it profitable, and then take a big chip lead in that spot,” said Smith. “Big shot, I thought was worth it and, yeah, I just ran into it, I guess. But I still had some chips to work with.

“I actually felt very locked in the entire day,” said Smith. “I was intensely focused, which is, I think, why I’m so exhausted now. I mean, Matt is a phenomenal player. I played a very, very unconventional style of heads up, which I’m sure you noticed, and that was only because of how good I thought Matt was. It’s mentally taxing, and I really felt like I had to be on my A-game to beat him. I’m just really happy that I was able to redeem myself from last time.”

This time around, Smith had a few extra things in his pocket that, while small on their own, could very well have made the difference in his path to victory. He had sunglasses at the ready after struggling under the bright final table lights the previous time around. He also didn’t have to worry about a delayed final table or altering his day-to-day life in any way, with the event taking place in his own backyard.

“Sleeping in my own bed at night helped, for sure,” said Smith. “Getting a good night’s sleep, waking up and having my normal morning routine, not living in hotels makes a giant difference. And having my beautiful girlfriend here supporting me, too.”

You might think that someone rattling off results like Smith has over the last two years would want to be in the mix as often as possible. But the final piece of the puzzle in getting Smith over the final hump may well have been his selectiveness.

After a busy summer schedule, Smith drove all the way home from Vegas to South Florida and took a lot of time to decompress away from poker. And in the moments after his victory, Smith gave that lengthy break a lot of credit in him having just enough to push through to the end.

“Funny enough, I actually haven’t been playing a ton of poker since Vegas,” said Smith. “I took most of the last few months off, which I think helped, because I came into this very fresh and excited to play. I never like to force volume. I never want to just be sitting at the table and not wanting to be there.”

Smith has another trip to Las Vegas set for the next couple of weeks, with a seat to the $10,400 WPT World Championship already locked up thanks to his WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open win. He’s also inserted himself directly into the WPT Player of the Year race, in which Smith currently sits in second place with two qualifying tournaments left.

With a year like the one Smith’s had already in 2024, it’d likely be a mistake to count out one final flourish to a year he’ll never forget.

“Getting a win gives me a little taste of the adrenaline and everything,” said Smith. “And now I want to go back and play even more.”