Dan Smith

Dan Smith is a professional poker player from Manalapan, New Jersey.

Dan Smith was born in 1989 and began playing poker at 16 years of age, despite not being old enough to legally play. An avid chess player since the age of six, he was aiming to receive a chess scholarship to the University of Maryland after graduating high school. Smith says he grew tired of chess, however, and it eventually stopped being fun to play. That lack of interest lead him to play more and more poker, putting aside both chess and school work. In 2007 he decided to stop attending his college and pursue a career as a professional poker player. In a short amount of time he made a name for himself as one of the top players in the world.

A year into his professional career, he won his first title at the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at Turning Stone Resort & Casino. His results for the next few years were consistent, although not as profitable. That all changed in 2012, which proved to be a momentous year for Smith.

In that year he won, or made deep runs, in several large tournaments. At the $100k Aussie Millions event he won the top prize for $1.04 million, before heading to the EPT 8 Grand Final in Monte Carlo. There Smith won the ‎€5k 6max $202k, the ‎€5k NLHE for $330k, and another ‎€5k 6max event for $155k, all in the span of just four days. This run quickly solidified him as one of the top young players to watch.

He has not slowed down since then. In the three years since that monumental year, he has taken down several more high profile tournaments, in addition to final tabling many more.

In 2013, he won a $10k event at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1.2 million, one of the largest cashes of his career. He then made a return to the Aussie Millions in 2014, where he fell short in second place, netting him $243k as a consolation prize. Four months later, he had his largest cash to date when he won $2.04 million at a $100k Super High Roller in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 27.

Beyond merely playing in live tournaments, Smith stakes many players in major series like the World Series of Poker, where in 2014 he made over 200 deals either purchasing pieces of players or staking their entire buy-in outright. His approach to bankroll management sets him apart from many pros, saying that he likes to be aggressive and gamble rather than playing it safe. Despite losing money on many players he believes that live play is still soft enough that almost any investment is a good one.

In total, his total live earnings to date are nearly $10 million, putting him at 36th on the All Time Money List from Hendon Mob, a remarkable feat at just 26 years of age in 2015. Online, he has earned nearly $3 million from a combined 774 cashes as of October 2015.

Dan Smith can on PokerStars under the name Danny98765.