The eyes of poker fans everywhere were on Maryland Live! casino as four notable professional players were set to battle it out for the newest World Poker Tour title on the six-handed final table. The big-name players included two-time WPT winner Darren Elias, former Online pro Mario Silvestri, WSOP bracelet winner and current WPT Player of the Year race leader Benjamin Zamani and Cate Hall, who was at her fourth final table at the tour within the last ONE YEAR. Despite all of these seasoned pros, the title was ultimately contested between IT salesman Ryan Belz and up to date medical school dropout Zachary Smiley, neither of whom had ever earned a cash at the WPT. Finally Smiey emerged victorious because the 2016 WPT Maryland Live! $3,500 no-limit hold’em main event champion, earning his first major live tournament title and the $356,536 first-place prize.

Smiley came into the overall table because the second shortest stack. Short stack Cate Hall was the primary to hit the rail in sixth place ($68,554). Shortly afterwards Smiley tripled up when his A10 outran Belz pocket queens and Benjamin Zamani’s pocket eights. The board ran out AK399 and Smiley rocketed up the leaderboard from short stack to second in chips behind Belz. Zamani hit the rail in fifth place for $85,429. This was his third main event final table at the tour this season, with two prior runner-up finishes. The 525 Card Player Player of the Year points he earned were enough to transport him into 19th place within the POY race with 3,015 points and year-to-date earnings of $868,843.

Mario Silvestri sent Darren Elias to the rail in third place ($113,905) but he followed Elias to the rail not long, as only some orbits later he ran AJ into Smiley’s AQ and didn't catch up. Silvestri was eliminated in third place, earning $153,983 and putting in the overall showdown between Belz and Smiley.

Smiley began with just over a 3-to-2 chip advantage over Belz. The 2 played just over 40 hands of heads up, with Smiley slowly extending his lead. Within the final hand Smiley four-bet all in preflop with the 55 and was called by Belz’s AQ. The board ran out 1096J4 and Smiely’s small pair held up, securing him the title and sending Belz to the rail in second place ($239,412).

Here is a glance on the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Place	Player	Earnings (USD)	POY Points
1	Zachary Smiley	$356,536	1260
2	Ryan Belz	$239,412	1050
3	Mario Silvestri	$153,983	840
4	Darren Elias	$113,905	630
5	Benjamin Zamani	$85,429	525
6	Cate Hall	$68,554	420

Winner photo courtesy of WPT.

Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]