Hopefully Full Tilt Poker pro Gavin Smith made a prop bet that he would win the World Poker Tour’s North American Poker Championship (NAPC). In 2006, Smith’s world-famous prop bet with Allie Prescott over who would win the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Atlantic City nearly paid off $700,000. Smith would up finishing second in that tournament to Peter Feldman. At the NAPC, he sits as the chip leader heading into Day 3 on Tuesday with 405,900, edging Matt Matros’ 383,800. Play resumes at 12:00 noon local time today.
Smith hails from Guelph, Canada, which is about 80 miles from the Fallsview Casino, the site of the NAPC. He dominated the fourth season of the World Poker Tour and won the Mirage Poker Showdown that year for $1.1 million. At the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship, he finished third, adding another $327,600 to his bankroll. In Tunica, Mississippi at the Gold Strike World Poker Open, Smith made his third six-handed final table of the season, finishing fourth and pocketing $173,000. In 2006, which was the first year that the $50,000 buy-in HORSE Championship took place at the World Series of Poker, Smith finished 11th and cashed for a rousing $205,000.
Right behind Smith in chips is Matros, who made the final table and finished sixth in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament at this year’s WSOP for $148,875. He has 12 career WSOP cashes in total. Matros is no stranger to WPT final tables either. In fact, he finished third in the WPT Championship during Season II for $706,000. In one of the final hands of Day 2, Matros doubled up holding pocket sevens for quads on a board of A-7-3-6-7.
When play concluded on Day 2, several familiar names were atop the leader board:
1. Gavin Smith – 405,900
2. Matt Matros – 383,800
3. Vivek Rajkumar – 342,100
4. Ryan Fisler – 327,500
5. Robert Cheung – 316,100
6. Mark Zajdner – 312,600
7. Scott Wilson – 305,100
8. Kathy Liebert – 298,300
9. Jeremy Joseph – 292,000
10. Brian Hawkins – 287,300
Other names you’ll recognize that survived to Day 3 of the NAPC include “Miami” John Cernuto (22nd in chips with 210,200), Sorel Mizzi (23rd in chips with 209,200), Erik Seidel (47th in chips with 116,800), Joe Sebok (49th in chips with 111,500), Lee Markholt (66th in chips with 84,100), Steven Paul-Ambrose (74th in chips with 68,000), Barry Greenstein (79th in chips with 64,500), Darus Suharto (91st in chips with 44,000), Mike Watson (93rd in chips with 40,300), and Jason Gray (98th in chips with 21,100). There will be 99 players who will take the field for Day 3. When play resumes, 82 minutes will remain in Level 11 with blinds of 1,500-3,000 with a 400 chip ante. The average chip stack is just less than 140,000.
In addition, the WPT just released the payout structure for the NAPC, which will award a seven-figure first place prize. All dollars given are Canadian:
1st Place: $1,250,352
2nd Place: $612,427
3rd Place: $319,337
4th Place: $262,469
5th Place: $196,851
6th Place: $153,107
7th Place: $109,362
8th Place: $87,490
9th Place: $69,992
10th-18th Places: $56,868
19th-27th Places: $43,745
28th-36th Places: $30,621
37th-45th Places: $17,498
Players ousted from the NAPC on Day 2 included Bill Edler, Roy Winston, Erik Cajelais, Daniel Negreanu, Mark Seif, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Vanessa Rousso, and John Phan. Play resumes at 12:00 noon local time on Tuesday, when the money bubble will be broken. The six-handed final table takes place on Thursday.
