Dan Smith Close behind Greg Merson in POY Race

Dan Smith Close behind Greg Merson in POY Race December 18, 2012 December 18, 2012 Tim Glocks https://www.poker-online.com/author/tim
Posted on  Dec 18, 2012 | Updated on  Dec 18, 2012 by Tim Glocks

Dan SmithProfessional poker player Dan Smith’s success in live poker tournaments held this year has been unbelievable. He just won the €5k NL Hold’em 6-Max Turbo event of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague tournament after beating a field of 43 formidable opponents and gathered a prize of $89,039 in addition to 240 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) Points. This puts him just 60 POY Points behind poker pro Greg Merson, who is now leading the POY race.

This happens to be Smith’s sixth live tournament success of 2012, the largest number of tournaments won he has ever won in one year. Smith’s victory is worth noting because it is his fourth 2012 victory in tournaments having a buy-in of €5,000.

He won the other three €5,000 buy-in tournaments in just slightly more than one week during the EPT Grand Final held this spring. The poker pro has plumped his bankroll by $3,673,806 playing live tournaments alone and has reached the final tables nine times throughout 2012.

Dan Smith has also performed incredibly well in online poker tournaments. For instance, he won cash in the Sunday Million tournament, which is run on PokerStars, this October.

Since there are just a few days for the year to end, Smith does not have much time to overtake the POY race leader; however, there are several more POY-qualified live poker tournaments he can take part in. Beating Merson, the leader of the POY race, is not an easy task as Merson is a talented poker player, having won the WSOP Main Event and scooped up two WSOP bracelets.

Phil Hellmuth, Merson, and Smith are the only poker pros who have won seven-figure prizes several times in 2012. The top 10 players on the POY 2012 leader board have won prizes worth more than $47 million in 2012.

Here are the final results of the €5,000 NL Hold’em 6-Max Turbo tournament, along with cash prizes won and POY Points awarded: The player who finished first Dan Smith won $89,039 and 240 POY Points. The runner-up Marc-Andre Ladouceur won $73,301 and 200 POY Points. Daniel Kelly, the player who finished third, won $37,251 and 160 POY Points. Paul Berende, the player who finished fourth, won $26,665 and 120 POY Points. Bryn Kenney, the player who finished fifth, won $21, 306 and 100 POY Points. And Bertrand Grospellier, the player who finished sixth, won $18,691 and 80 POY Points.

Tim GlocksAuthor

Tim Glocks is a retired professor, he currently contributes to Poker-Online.com. Tim enjoys playing poker and has taken it up as a hobby since his retirement. He has taken part in many online tournaments and has become a veteran in a short space of time. Visit Tim’s google + page here