Zachary Smiley has one career live cash – a World Poker Tour win (Joe Giron/WPT photo)

At a final table that included current World Poker Tour Player of the Year frontrunner Benjamin Zamani, Season XIV breakout star Cate Hall and two-time WPT champion Darren Elias it was a relative unknown that was left standing on Wednesday night as WPT Maryland Live played down to a winner.

Zachary Smiley, who dropped out of medical school last week, beat out that group of players to win WPT Maryland Live and $356,536 for his first career live cash.

Cate Hall began the final table as the shortest stack and wasn’t able to improve her position before being eliminated in sixth place. Ryan Belz raised to 230,000 from UTG and Hall shipped her last 800,000 from the big blind and Belz called. Hall tabled Ah9s and was racing against Belz’s 6h6s. The board ran out KcTh7sQd2s to eliminate Hall. She now has eight career WPT cashes including two fifth place finishes, a ninth place and a sixth.

While it took 73 hands for the first elimination, it took just 11 more hands to get the second. Smiley moved all in from UTG, Zamani called from the small blind and Belz called from the big blind. When the hands were table Smiley was behind with AdTd, Belz held QhQs and Zamani had 8d8s. Fortunately for Smiley the flop came AsKh3c to put him ahead. The 9d turn and 9c river were no help for his opponents and Smiley tripled up while Zamani was eliminated in fifth place.

Zamani now has three WPT final table appearances this season and has twice as many WPT Player of the Year points as his nearest competitor.

Just 20 minutes later the only former WPT champion at the final table was eliminated. Left with just over six big blinds, Darren Elias moved all in from the UTG and Mario Silvestri called from the big blind. Elias got bad news after turning over Ks6s and discovering Silvestri had him dominated with AcKc. It only got worse for Elias as the board ran out Tc4c3sQc5c to give Silvestri a flush and end Elias’ run in fourth place.

Despite picking up the extra chips, Silvestri didn’t stick around much longer. Just eight hands later Silvestri raised to 240,000 from the button, only to have Smiley make it 525,000. Silvestri moved all in and Smiley called. This time it was Silvestri who was dominated; Smiley showed AcQc while Silvestri had AhJc. The 9d8d3cTc4h run out couldn’t save Silvestri and he was out in third.

When heads up play began Smiley had a better-than 3-2 chip lead over Belz. Over the next 42 hands of play Smiley only increased his lead before finally finishing Belz off. Smiley opened to 300,000, Belz raised to 800,000 and Smiley moved all in. Belz called and tabled AdQc while Smiley showed 5d5h. The Tc9c6d flop was no help for Belz but the Jh turn gave him eight extra outs for a straight. The 4s river was not one of those outs and Smiley eliminated Belz to capture the title, the $356,536 first place prize, including a seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions.

Final Table Payouts

  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