Smith Cruises to Five Diamond Chip Lead

Smith Cruises to Five Diamond Chip Lead

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Jean-Robert Bellande's dream of making a WPT final table was cruelly snatched away from him last night as Dan Smith ran amok on the penultimate day of the Five Diamond Classic.

Despite starting the day with most of the community supporting him, Bellande eventually fell victim to the dominating Smith after he moved all-in with Kh Qh. Knowing he needed a miracle to make it past Smith's Ah Kc after the flop rolled out Ks 8d 6s, Bellande could only raise a rueful smile as the turn and river produced blanks.

With nothing left to cling onto except an elimination ticket worth $52,079, Bellande made his way to the rail while Smith made his to the top of the chip counts. Indeed, by the time the starting field of 21 had been cut to just 6, the American pro had managed to amass a stack of 3,720,000 chips.

When the lights finally went down and the tournament clock was paused that haul was enough for Smith's name to take pride of place on the daily leaderboard ahead of Gary Benson (3,110,000), Shaun Suller (2,425,000), Joe Serock (1,615,000), Eddy Sabat (1,540,000) and Barry Hutter (1,265,000).



Tags: WPT Five Diamond Classic, Dan Smith, Jean-Robert Bellande