These days, it seems like Gavin Smith has become exceptionally good at finishing in second place.  He has a second place in the 2007 WSOP, a second at the World Poker Tour stop in Niagara Falls in 2008, and several other close calls that have resulted in Smith being on the short list of players deemed “the best without a bracelet.”

2010 appears to be a breakthrough year for Smith though.  He kicked it off with a strong showing at Fallsview Casino in Canada, followed it up with a final table appearance at the Borgata in the spring, and even made the Sweet Sixteen in last week’s Heads-Up World Championship.  What was missing was a bracelet.  Until now.

Smith came into today near the top of the counts at the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em final table and he would settle for nothing less than a win.  After several hours of patience and poker prowess, Smith emerged victorious, defeating Danny Hannawa after a lengthy heads-up battle.

After clinging to life to make the final table in the first place, Mike Santoro wasted no time before getting it in during the first level of Limit Hold’em, raising with AJ and getting in a preflop raising battle with Michael Michnik, who was defending out of the big blind. Michnik got it in holding 89 to the overcards and improved to a winning pair of eights as the board ran out QT785. Santoro, meanwhile, exited in ninth place.

Dwyte Pilgrim was hoping to add a WSOP bracelet to go along with his numerous WSOP-C rings, but after clashing with Smith in several pots and dropping a big pot to Daniel Idema, Pilgrim found himself getting short on chips. His final hand came in the Limit Hold’em round when Jamie Rosen raised out of the small blind and Pilgrim defended out of the big. The flop fell JT8 and Rosen check-called a bet from Pilgrim. The turn brought the Q and Rosen checked to Pilgrim a second time. Pilgrim bet, Rosen raised, and Pilgrim called all in holding K3 for an overcard and an open-ended straight draw. Rosen showed Q7 for top pair, which held to eliminated Pilgrim in eighth after the river fell 7.

It looked as though Smith was putting some distance between himself and the rest of the table, until a massive 3-way all-in created a new chipleader and big stack for the longtime pro to contend with. Rosen raised during the No Limit round and Idema declared he was all-in for around 375,000 from the cutoff. Timothy Finne was in the small blind and called all-in for his last 313,000, leaving Rosen with quite a decision. After thinking a minute or so, Rosen called the two all ins holding JJ and saw he was up against Idema’s AQ and Finne’s AK. Big slick trumped the other hands as the board ran out 843K7 and Finne raked in the 1.1 million chip pot. Idema was out in seventh and Rosen fell to under 400,000.

A series of preflop raises in Limit resulted in Jarred Solomon and Danny Hannawa getting the last of Solomon’s stack in on a flop of K75. Solomon’s pocket queens were no match for Hannawa’s AK and the South African player exited in sixth place.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Rosen rallied to rebuild his stack, but saw it all come crashing down when he raised in the cutoff during the 12,000/24,000 ante 3,000 level of No Limit Hold’em, Hannawa reraised out of the small blind, and Rosen shoved all in for a little over half a million holding AJ. Hannawa had him bested with AK and, when the board ran out all small cards, Rosen hit the rail in fifth place.

Play continued four-handed for a while, until Smith picked up pocket kings on back-to-back hands to trim the field in half.  The first time Smith picked up kings, he got it all in preflop during the Limit round against Michnik and his QJ.  The cowboys held and Michnik was out.

Smith was not even done stacking chips when he picked up kings again and won a huge pot off of Finne that took a big chunk out of Finne’s stack.  The next hand, Hannawa took a chunk of Finne’s stack and, just like that, Finne was down to three big bets and all-in preflop holding 68 to Hannawa’s AJ.  Finne was drawing dead by the turn as the board ran out A92J8 and the tournament was down to heads-up play.

Smith and Hannawa began their heads-up match fairly even in chips, but Smith managed to slowly amass a sizable chip lead over a couple of hours of play. The pivotal pot came during a Limit round when Hannawa raised the button, Smith called, and the two saw a flop of 842. Smith checked, Hannawa bet, and Smith check-raised. Hannawa called and paid off another bet from Smith after the K peeled on the turn. The river brought the T and Smith bet out once again. Hannawa thought for a minute before calling, then mucked his hand when Smith showed 89 for a pair of eights.

Minutes later, the two were all in with Smith holding the superior AQ to Hannawa’s 8T. Smith had to sweat it to the river as the board ran out AK2JJ, but in the end his hand held up and, after years of trying, Smith is now a WSOP bracelet winner.

Here are the complete final table results from Event #44:

1st: Gavin Smith - $268,238
2nd: Danny Hannawa - $166,005
3rd: Timothy Finne - $110,324
4th: Michael Michnik - $81,871
5th: Jamie Rosen - $61,441
6th: Jarred Solomon - $46,562
7th: Daniel Idema - $35,601
8th: Dwyte Pilgrim - $27,438
9th: Mike Santoro - $21,304

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