A total of 554 players paid $3,500 to enter the World Poker Tour Maryland Live! event, creating a pricepool of $1,772,800. In the end, it was medical school dropout Zachary Smiley who came out the strongest. He beat Ryan Belz heads-up to win the trophy and $356,536 (this price includes a $15,000 seat for the WPT Tournament of Champions).
The chipcounts were as follows at the beginning of the final table:
|
Player |
Chips |
Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|
|
Ryan Belz |
4.865.000 |
81 |
|
Zachary Smiley |
1.255.000 |
21 |
|
Mario Silvestri III |
2.700.000 |
45 |
|
Darren Elias |
4.515.000 |
75 |
|
Ben Zamani |
2.075.000 |
35 |
|
Cate Hall |
1.235.000 |
21 |
Smiley, who started the last table with one of the 2 shortstacks, managed to double up on the river with 
against Zamani’s 
when the board ran out 
. The players were 6-handed for 72 straight hands, that’s when Hall got all her chips in the middle with 
and couldn’t hit against Belz’ 
, she finished 6th for $68,554.
Ten hands later, a huge 3-way all-in occured where Belz got unlucky. His queens were in perfect shape to knock Smiley (ace-ten) and Zamani (pocket 8’s) out, but Smiley managed to spike an ace to survive, while Zamani finished in 5th place for $85,429.
Darren Elias, who already holds 2 WPT-titles, couldn’t secure his third victory as he finished in 4th for $113,905 when his 
was no good against Silvestri’s 
.
Silvestri’s 
then didn’t get lucky against Smiley’s 
on a board of 
, he finished 3rd for $153,983.
Smiley started heads-up play with a 2:1 chipadvantage, and within 30 hands all Belz’ chips were in the middle with ace-queen, flipping against the pocket 5’s of Smiley. The board ran out 
and Smiley earned his first ever recorded live poker result.
The payouts:
|
Place |
Player |
Price |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Zachary Smiley |
$356.536 |
|
2 |
Ryan Belz |
$239.412 |
|
3 |
Mario Silvestri |
$153.983 |
|
4 |
Darren Elias |
$113.905 |
|
5 |
Benjamin Zamani |
$85.429 |
|
6 |
Cate Hall |
$68.554 |
