Dan Smith Wins WPT Five Diamond Classic After Knocking off Gary Benson

449 players entered the Bellagio a week ago with hopes of winning the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, but on late Wednesday night, it was Dan Smith who was the last player standing. 

Heading into the six-handed final table, the Las Vegas native held a table-high $3.72 million chip count. He used that advantage to eliminate three of the final five participants, including Australian Gary Benson in the final head-to-head. 

In doing so, Smith turned his $10,300 buy-in into a cool $1.16 million. Here's a look at how the final table played out, courtesy of CardPlayer.com:

Place	Player	Prize
1	Dan Smith	$1,161,135
2	Gary Benson	$672,685
3	Eddy Sabat	$436,160
4	Shaun Suller	$303,793
5	Barry Hutter	$219,165
6	Joe Serock	$175,766

According to PokerNews.com, it was Smith's first WPT title, but that's not quite indicative of his overall success. Per CardPlayer.com, this already marks his third event taking home at least $1 million in winnings.

Fox Sports' Lynn Gilmartin provided a picture of the ecstatic winner along with his prize money and ginormous trophy:

Smith added his own words of thanks following the victory:

The 24-year-old sent Joe Serock packing early in the day, and after Eddy Sabat gained some momentum by taking care of Barry Hutter and Shaun Suller, Smith eliminated Sabat himself. 

Then it was down to just Smith and Benson. The 56-year-old Australian entered the final day second in chip count, but by the time we had dwindled down to two players, he had just $1.72 million in chips to Smith's $11.96 million. 

With such a disadvantage, the head-to-head battle didn't last long. 

With not many big blinds left, Benson moved all in with pocket fours. Smith called him with a King and 10 offsuit. A 10 of Clubs came on the flop, and after a harmless turn and river, the youngster's victory was secured. 

WPT's Vince Van Patten offered his words of congrats:

The victory also earned Smith a $15,400 seat at the WPT World Championship in April. With the way he's playing, he'll serve as an extremely difficult out.