Daily Rewind: Dan Smith's WPT win, StarCraft pro turns to poker, Kyllonen angry
Today we crown a new WPT champion, welcome a gamer to the poker industry and go on tilt with Jens Kyllonen.
Smith shines in WPT finale
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| Successful Mr. Smith (Image: WPT) |
After a confident performance on Day 5 of this year's WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Dan Smith entered yesterday's finale full of optimism. Knowing he was just a few eliminations from the $1,161,135 top prize, Smith started the session full of verve, but within a few hands he'd fallen from grace.
As Smith slipped and Joe Serock (6th - $175,766), Barry Hutter (5th - $219,165) and Shaun Suller (4th - $303,793) hit the rail, Eddy Sabat took the lead. However, as three-handed play dragged on it was Smith who enjoyed a renaissance, doubling up through Sabat twice to dominate once again.
Those blows soon led to the demise of Sabat (3rd - $436,160) and gave Smith the perfect springboard from which to beat Gary Benson (2nd - $672,685) in just nine hands. After watching his 
outrace Benson's pocket fours, Smith was able to rake in the final pot and lift his first WPT trophy.
Game turns poker pro
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| Watch out for Lim |
Following in the footsteps of tournament maestro Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, pro gamer Lim Yo-Hwan is looking to make a name for himself in the poker world.
For most poker players the moniker 'BoxeR' won't be familiar, however, Lim was recently voted as one of the most influential gamers of all time by MTV.
According to a recent TV show, the South Korean gamer will be taking a break from his $500,000-a-year StarCraft activities to play poker professionally.
Whether Lim can become as much of a success as 'ElkY' remains to be seen, however, he does feel that he'll be able to use his profile to promote a "healthy sport culture" in poker.
Kyllonen wants justice
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| Unhappy Jens |
Following on from the revelation that he was a victim of a sharking attack during this year's EPT Barcelona, Jens 'jenskyllonen' Kyllonen has decided to share his story on 2+2.
According to a recent post the high stakes pro is unhappy with how the situation has been handled by various parties involved in the investigation and he is concerned that the police weren't contacted (despite being told otherwise).
Moreover, he feels that the incident has been "swept under the carpet" and that those involved will never be brought to justice.
Explaining everything contained in Kyllonen's post is beyond the scope of this report, however, you can click here for the full report.
Alexander 'PostflopAction' Kostritsyn bounced back from his recent defeat to claim the top spot on the latest high stakes leaderboard. After grinding through 661 hands the Russian pro managed to bank $143,700 to finish the day ahead of 'bajskorven87' ($127,108) and 'JLlama' ($109,198).
One player who wasn't able to recover from his latest loss was Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom. The Swedish pro continued his recent downswing with a $245,181 loss and claimed the dubious honour of becoming the day's biggest loser.
Question of the Day
With Lim Yo-Hwan migrating from the gaming world to the poker table, we want your thoughts on the following question:
Which video game (or any other competitive game) provides the best training for poker?
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Daily Signoff
With another gaming icon looking to take the poker world by storm in 2014, we thought we'd finish today with a look at 'ElkY' doing his thing at the felt.
