Player Spotlight: Dan Smith
You can find Dan Smith at the poker table by looking for the dude in the cowboy hat. He wears it well, but even if he didn’t, he’s has $26 million in live earnings, so who cares?
When you’ve achieved that much success in poker before the age of 30, you do what you want. And what Dan Smith wants to do is play poker and help people out.
For the past five years, he’s organized the Double Up Drive. The drive accepts donations to numerous charitable causes and matches contributions dollar-for-dollar. This year Smith – along with fellow poker pros Matt Ashton and Stephen Chidwick as well as daily fantasy sports pro Aaron Merchak – matched donations of more than $2.4 million. The drive also received an anonymous $125,000 donation from a poker pro.
He documents his charitable causes on his personal blog, www.dansmithholla.com, and for someone so dedicated it’s fitting that his largest career cash came in last year’s Big One For One Drop. Smith scored a $4 million payout for finishing in 3rd place. It was an appropriate addition to his resume, which includes being ranked the top player in the world by Global Poker Index in 2014.
But there’s still one thing that eludes him.
“Dan Smith is the best player in the world without a World Series of Poker bracelet,” Daniel Negreanu said of Smith.
He has several top-three finishes at the WSOP, but has yet to break through for his own signature moment. It seems like a matter of when, not if, he adds that accolade, because Smith will be among the game’s best for as long as he chooses.
He turns 30 on Saturday, the final day of the U.S. Poker Open, when the winner of the $100,000 Main Event will be crowned.
It’s pretty easy to guess what he might be wishing for.
