Dylan Smith Wins $25,000 PLO High Roller at the 2023 PCA for $364,000

The latest high Roller event to take place in the Caribbean was the $25,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) event, and after two days of stirring action, it was the American professional Dylan Smith who bagged the biggest prize. Outlasting players such as poker-player-turned-recent-pop-singer Jeremy Ausmus and Shaun Deeb at the final table, Smith won the $364,440 in stunning fashion at the conclusion of the event.

Making the Final Table

It’s been a really busy 10 days since the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure kicked off, with Michel Dattani already having won the $10,300-entry Main Event for $1.3 million and Isaac Haxton taking down the Super High Roller event for over a million dollars too. With the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) underway, the drama is nowhere near over at the Baha Mar Resort and there will be the biggest winner of all in the PSPC before the end of the week.

Mixed Games have become hugely popular in recent years and having a token event is no longer anywhere near good enough. High rollers in other formats to No Limit Hold’em fill up nowadays and with 44 players, a total of $1,056,440 made it into the prizepool. That meant only the final table of six would make the money, with the minimum payout a healthy $73,950.

The player who bubbled the event turned out to be the American John Zable. He was all-in with A-Q-Q-J and lost to Joni Jouhkimainen’s A-K-T-5 after a board of K-J-5-9-K gave the Finnish players a full house with kings over fives, reducing the field to half a dozen players all chasing the famous ‘Spadie’ trophy.

Shaun Deeb is Defeated

With six players left, it was Jouhkimainen who was the next to bust. He lost a big stack to Jeremy Ausmus before being called by the same opponent as well as Shaun Deeb in the next hand. All-in and at risk with the words “All right boy, let’s gamble”, the Finnish player lost to Deeb’s rivered nut straight which bumped the American up to 405,000 chips, still some way behind Ausmus on 480,000. Jouhkimainen cashed for $73,950 in sixth place.

A few hands later, Deeb looked like he was taking control, seizing the chip lead with five still in the hunt. Ukrainian player Andriy Lyubovetskiy was the next to bust, winning $95,100 in fifth place after the eventual winner Smith took him out of the equation. Lyubovetskiy lost with pocket queens in his hole cards, Smith making a straight on the river to skittle the Ukrainian’s hopes of victory, while vaulting himself into the reckoning for the title in the process.

Smith was on a roll and that continued as he doubled through Shaun Deeb to send the former chip leader to the bottom of the chipcounts. Both Oliver Weis and Jeremy Ausmus traded chips, but Deeb couldn’t survive, a short time later losing his last with pocket kings losing to Smith’s pocket aces, a board of T-6-5-5-7 changing nothing to the players hands pre-flop.

Ausmus Doubles Then Departs

Jeremy Ausmus has enjoyed the kind of few years at the felt that many people dream about, but he didn’t quite make it to another title win here, having to settle for only one trophy lift in January instead. He initially doubled up through Dylan Smith, but shortly after Deeb hit the dust, so too did Ausmus.

All-in with pairs of tens and eights, Ausmus was behind pre-flop as Smith called the shove with K-Q-Q-T, not even knowing he had a blocker to Ausmus’ biggest pair. The flop of A-A-5 changed nothing and after a turn of a three and a jack on the river, Ausmus was out, cashing for $163,750 in third place.

Heads-up, Dylan Smith had 1.6 million chips to Oliver Weis’ 600,000 and with the blinds at 15,000/30,000, Weis needed to get some traction quickly. Instead, the opposite happened. A chop pot was followed by the final hand soon after as Weis shoved with A-K-9-7 and Smith called it off with J-7-6-3. The flop of K-3-2 set Weis into the lead with top pair but Smith had a flush draw. Extra straight outs were added on the turn of a five, but they weren’t needed by Smith who hit the ace in his flush on the river, Weis’ two pair no good.

As Oliver Weis collected the runner-up prize of $237,700, Smith celebrated his biggest-ever tournament result as he won his first ‘Spadie’ PokerStars trophy and the top prize of $364,440 with his friends and family on the rail.