Dylan Smith Captures WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open Title

The Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood has awarded the third highest amount of poker tournament prize money of any casino in the United States this year, with $64.3 million paid out to date. Only the Horseshoe Las Vegas with $427 million and Wynn Las Vegas with $88.3 million have paid out more (as of early December).
The latest big series to wrap at the Hard Rock was the World Poker Tour Rock’n’Roll Poker Open. The 49-event series drew over 16,800 entries from Nov. 20 – Dec. 3, with nearly $14.2 million in total prize money paid out along the way.
Smith Converts Second Chance At WPT Glory In Hollywood
Dylan Smith came within a few spots of winning a WPT main event at this same venue back in May, placing fifth in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event. Incredibly, he didn’t have to wait all that long for another shot at a WPT title.
Just 188 days after that deep run, Smith managed to navigate his way through a field of 1,435 entries in the $3,500 main event of the WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open, earning the title and a career-best score of $662,200.
“It feels phenomenal. I didn’t know when I would get a chance at redemption, and I am really grateful that I was able to do it so quickly,” said Smith after closing out the win.
These two deep runs in WPT events are far from the only big scores Smith has achieved at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. In fact, eight of Smith’s top 14 tournament paydays have come at the venue. He now has nearly $3.5 million in career earnings across 103 recorded cashes in total.
This event featured a $3 million guarantee, with the sizable turnout of 1,435 entries easily surpassing that target. In the end, $4,592,000 in total prize money was paid out among the top 181 finishers.
Big names that ran deep included two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (29th), 2015 WSOP main event champion Joe McKeehen (26th), top POY contender Ren Lin (22nd), recent PGT Texas PLO Roundup high roller winner Adam Hendrix (18th), two-time bracelet winner Alexandre Reard (14th), and WPT champions Matthew Wantman (8th) and Darryll Fish (7th).
The final day began with Matthew Beinner in the lead and bracelet winner Francis Anderson on the short stack. Paul Domb was the first to fall, though, when his pocket jacks ran into the pocket kings of Beinner. The larger pair held and Domb was knocked out in sixth place for $140,000.
Anderson doubled up with pocket kings to give himself some breathing room. Not long after that, Smith doubled through Landon Tice, who had finished runner-up in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown main event that Smith final tabled earlier this year. Smith’s pocket aces held against A-K to give an early jolt to his stack.
A couple of orbits later, Anderson got all-in again with pocket queens racing against the A-K of Beinner. The turn brought a king and there was no queen on the river. Anderson was eliminated in fifth place for $184,000. He now has nearly $3.6 million in lifetime earnings.
Tice soon followed Anderson to the rail. The MSPT champion ran pocket nines into the pocket tens of Florian Ribouchon to bust in fourth place. He secured $245,000 for his deep run, the third-largest payday on his résumé so far. As a result, his career earnings grew to over $2.3 million.
Florian Ribouchon three-bet shoved from the big blind with pocket sixes, running into Beinner on the button with pocket nines. Beinner wound up with nines full of jacks, ending Ribouchon’s run in third place for $325,000. This was the second-best payday yet for the Frenchman, trailing only the $1,003,554 he earned as the runner-up in the 2023 WSOP Millionaire Maker.
Heads-up play kicked off with Beinner holding just shy of a 2:1 chip lead over Smith. That gap shrunk over the first 30 or so hands. Smith then edged into the lead with a rivered straight against the turned two pair of Beinner. Smith won another big pot, bombing the river with a king-high flush and forcing a fold from Beinner’s turned eight-high straight to give him a 2:1 advantage of his own.
Beinner had slid to 18 big blinds when the final hand of the tournament arose. Smith jammed from the button with 7♣ 6♣ and Beinner called off with Q♥ J♦. The flop came down K♥ 7♦ 6♦ to give Smith two pair. Beinner turned a gutshot straight draw with the 9♣, but the 3♠ on the river ended his run in second place. The $440,000 payout he left with was more than twice as large as his previous top score of $204,601 which he earned as the runner-up in a $1,500 Big O event at last summer’s WSOP.
Jaka and Wilson Shine In Higher Buy-In Side Events
The first of the high roller events to wrap up was the $10,000 buy-in, which drew a healthy field of 110 entries, resulting in a $1,045,000 prize pool that was split up amongst the top 14 finishers. After two days of high-stakes tournament action, it was Faraz Jaka who emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $313,495.
Jaka is a WSOP bracelet winner and the WPT’s season 8 Player of the Year award winner. This latest victory increased his career earnings to nearly $8.2 million.
High-stakes crusher Thomas Muhlocker (5th), and four-time WPT main event final tablist Viet Vo (3rd) also made the final table. The heads-up clash for the title came down to Jaka and Phillip Krnyaich, who collected a new career-best score of $193,325 for second place.
The largest buy-in of the festival was won by Brandon Wilson, who is arguably the new ‘end boss’ of high-stakes poker tournaments at SHR. The Illinois native has won four high roller events at the South Florida venue in the past 16 months, with those victories accounting for his four largest career scores.
Wilson has accrued more than $1.9 million with these four title runs, making up the majority of his nearly $2.7 million in total earnings.
The most recent triumph saw Wilson outlast a field of 85 entries in the $25,500 high roller to lock up the trophy and the top prize of $602,900. This narrowly surpassed the $601,800 he earned for winning the same event at the SHR Poker Showdown festival this spring for his top score.
His two other high-roller wins were in a pair of $50,000 buy-in events. He earned $362,780 as the champion of that super high roller at the SHRPO last August, then successfully defended that title this year for another $346,775.
This event more than doubled its $1 million guarantee, with $2,099,500 paid out among the top 12 finishers.
Two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis finished ninth, earning $60,300 for his 22nd final-table finish of the year. He was also awarded 56 POY points, bringing his total to 8,758. He now sits in third place in the Card Player Player of the Year standings, with more than $6.6 million in to-date POY earnings.
Kristen Foxen soon followed in seventh place for $84,300. This was the latest in a long list of big accomplishments for Foxen in 2024. In July she finished 13th in the WSOP main event for a career-best score of $600,000. In October she captured her record-extending fifth gold bracelet, taking down an online $1,000 six-max event to extend her advantage as the winningest female player in the history of the series.
She also sits in second place on the female all-time money list with $9.3 million to her name. Only Vanessa Selbst ($10.9 million) has cashed for more.
Frank Funaro (5th), Michael Jozoff (4th), Shannon Shorr (3rd), and Justin Chu (2nd) rounded out the final table.
Yanovsky and Neilson Snag Big Wins
The very first event on the schedule, a $400 no-limit hold’em event, drew 6,480 entries across its eight starting flights, surpassing the $2 million guarantee by more than $138,000.
The top 650 finishers earned a share of the prize money, with the largest chunk ultimately going to Eric Yanovsky of New York. He overcame the massive field and a tough final table to secure the title and the top prize of $261,920. He now has $950,000 in career earnings to his name.
The fifth-largest prize pool of the series belonged to the $5,000 no-limit hold’em event. With 184 entries, the $250,000 guarantee was more than tripled. The $864,800 in prize money was split between 23 finishers, with big names like Joe Serock (6th), Cherish Andrews (5th), and David Coleman (3rd) all running deep.
Coleman earned $100,000 and 448 POY points for his latest podium showing. This was his 23rd final-table finish of the year in a POY-qualified event. With five wins and nearly $3.9 million accrued across those scores, he now sits in second place on the 2024 leaderboard with 9,138 points. Only Adrian Mateos has accumulated more with 10,174. (See pg. 38)
Australia’s Daniel Neilson came out on top in the end, earning $201,500 as the champion. He now has nearly $4.6 million in recorded earnings. ♠

WPT Rock ‘n’ Roll Open – Seminole Hard Rock – Hollywood, Florida

Event Player Payout (POY)
$400 NLH

Nov. 20-25

$2,000,000 GTD
Entries: 6,480
Prizepool: $2,138,400 1 Eric Yanovsky $261,920 (528)
2 Omar Morillo $173,000 (440)
3 Rafael Lopez $129,000 (352)
4 Michael Tarafa $96,000 (264)
5 Jessica Cai $73,000 (220)
6 Bradley Grossman $55,000 (176)
7 Maurice Hawkins $42,500 (132)
8 Kevin Vail $33,000 (88)
9 Caleb Powell $26,000 (44)

Event Player Payout (POY)
$3,500 NLH

Nov. 29-Dec. 4

$3,000,000 GTD
Entries: 1,435
Prizepool: $4,592,000 1 Dylan Smith $662,200 (1,440)
2 Matthew Beinner $440,000 (1,200)
3 Florian Ribouchon $325,000 (960)
4 Landon Tice $245,000 (720)
5 Francis Anderson $184,000 (600)
6 Paul Domb $140,000 (480)
7 Darryll Fish $108,000 (360)
8 Matthew Wantman $84,000 (240)
9 Drew O’Connell $66,000 (120)

Event Player Payout (POY)
$10,000 NLH

Dec. 1-2

Entries: 110
Prizepool: $1,045,000 1 Faraz Jaka $313,495 (600)
2 Phillip Krnyaich $193,325 (500)
3 Viet Vo $115,995 (400)
4 Kamel Mokhammad $75,765 (300)
5 Thomas Muhlocker $58,520 (250)
6 Ben Grise $48,075 (200)
7 Brian Luo $40,755 (150)
8 Vladas Tamasauskas $35,530 (100)
9 Shannon Shorr $31,350 (50)
Event Player Payout (POY)
$25,500 NLH

Dec. 2-3

$1,000,000 GTD
Entries: 85
Prizepool: $2,099,500 1 Brandon Wilson $602,900 (672)
2 Justin Chu $402,000 (560)
3 Shannon Shorr $272,600 (448)
4 Michael Jozoff $191,700 (336)
5 Frank Funaro $140,100 (280)
6 Carlos Chadha-Villamarin $106,500 (224)
7 Kristen Foxen $84,300 (168)
8 Mathew Frankland $69,800 (112)
9 Jesse Lonis $60,300 (56)

Event Player Payout (POY)
$5,000 NLH 8-Max

Dec. 3

$250,000 GTD
Entries: 184
Prizepool: $864,800 1 Daniel Neilson $201,500 (672)
2 Fabian Niederreiter $134,000 (560)
3 David Coleman $100,000 (448)
4 David Dibernardi $75,000 (336)
5 Cherish Andrews $56,000 (280)
6 Joseph Serock $43,000 (224)
7 Diomig Delgado $33,000 (168)
8 Jack Hardcastle $25,500 (112)