Kenneth Smaron Wins 2017 PCS Panama Main Event

Latest stop on the PokerStars Championship tour was the Sortis Hotel, Spa & Casino in Panama City, with its $5,300 Main Event attracting 366 entries to create a prize pool of $1,775,100. One week of action later, and the tournament was eventually won by US pro Kenneth Smaron, who beat Harpreet Gill heads-up to claim the title, and a first place prize of $293,860.
The victory now boosts Smaron’s live earnings to $1,241,337, and represents his second biggest score to date, with his largest taking place in 2015 after taking down the EPT Prague €10k High Roller for €595,500 ($654,302). The 32-year-old is also a prolific online player, and has relocated to Costa Rica from Philadelphia in order to pursue a career in the game.
The PCS Panama Main Event paid 71 places, and amongst the recognizable pros seeing a return on their buy-ins was Steve O’Dwyer in 48th ($7,720), Davidi Kitai in 36th ($9,780), Jason Koon in 29th ($12,480), Juan Carlos Alvarado in 13th ($20,860), and Byron Kaverman in 8th ($35,920).
After the final table was set, Smaron subsequently eliminated Jonathan Abdellatif in 4th, and Denis Timofeev in 3rd to take a slight lead over Canada’s Harpreet Gill into heads-up play. The deciding hand subsequently saw Gill reraise all-in preflop holding 10-8, only to be called by Smaron with K-J. The board then ran out A-Q-9-9-5 to consign Gill to a runner-up finish worth $217,860, while Smaron was awarded the title.
Final Table Results:
1: Kenneth Smaron (USA) $293,860
2: Harpreet Gill (Canada) $217,860
3: Denis Timofeev (Russia) $161,340
4: Jonathan Abdellatif (Belgium) $119,480
5: Robin Luca Wozniczek (Germany) $88,480
6: Anthony Diotte (Canada) $65,520
In other PCS Panama related news, US pro Steve O’Dwyer took down the $10,300 Championship High Roller event having overcome a field of 84 players over three days, including Sam Greenwood heads-up, to claim its $240,451 top prize. O’Dwyer now has $16,562,282 in live tournament earnings, and is currently ranked at number 14 on poker’s “All Time Money List”, as well as number 1 for his home state of Colorado.