The long-time poker expert thrives off huge buy-in action
American pro poker player Dan Smith has been picking up successes for more than a decade by playing poker at the highest level. He has nearly $37 million in lifetime poker earnings, and recently cashed over $1 million playing the Super High Roller Bowl that just finished this month. He ended up third on the overall leaderboard of the 28-event series, with nine cashes and 780 points. Recently, Smith spoke about online high stakes games and other topics of interest for the poker community.
Not every poker player finds that moving to online grounds will bring the same success that they find in live events, but Smith is not one of those players. He had success in online poker even before the Black Friday days for online poker. From his point of view, there are two variants that can define someone's success. "I agree with the premise that online poker and live poker are very different games," said Smith. "I view online poker as an acuity test where, for the most part, it’s about trying to play the best strategy that you can and just see how it holds up. I think live poker gives you a lot more wiggle room and the opportunity to be creative."
"For a few years, my impression of poker has been that it’s a pretty good spot if you don’t need it for the bills and you’re comfortable," said the World Poker Tour champion. "If you need low variance money where you are very likely to win, I don’t think those spots exist. But on the other hand, I think the EV [expected value] is quite high. And at higher stakes, that means the best players are making more money." He has surely found success in the highest stakes both live and online. He plays both online and live poker because of the opportunity to smooth out the variance he has by playing several tournaments in one day, which can't be done in live events.
