Quality Engineer Justin Smith Wins Colossus Title for Maiden WSOP Bracelet

Winning the $500 buy-in Colossus WSOP 2026 Event #34 for $550,000 was an almost insurmountable task from Day 1. A week later and Justin Smith has the result of his poker career. Certainly his best score to date and likely the biggest result he’ll ever enjoy, the recreational player was stunned speechless at the end of one of the events that make the WSOP so special in the Paris Ballroom in Las Vegas.

A Colossal Field

With so many entries in the multi-table tournament, The Colossus lived up to its name. Players met at the final table who hadn’t sat at the same felt for a week in the same event. When the dust settled, it was Justin Smith who sat holding the bracelet, but at a rollercoaster final table, it could have been very different.

While Smith came into the final table just fourth in chips on 107 million chips, the leader was Yuefan Wang. An experienced player, Wang’s stack of 175 million dwarfed all others and if he wasn’t tipped to win, then many players believed that the in-game nous of the two-time WSOP bracelet winner and live pro Eric Baldwin would pay dividends.

It was the British player Min Ji who was the first player to leave the action, after he shoved with ace-jack against Justin Smith’s ace-queen which made the call.  A flop of K-7-3 with two spades was no good for Ji, but the British player could add spades to his outs list after a four in that suit arrived on the turn. Another would give him the nut flush but the ace of diamonds on the river instead sent him to the rail with $60,171.

Baldwin Bows Out

Only a couple more orbits went in the can before Eric Baldwin joined Ji on the rail. All-in with ace-three for just five big blinds, Baldwin ran into the pocket aces belonging to Myles German. The flop of A-5-3 meant only running cards for quads or a chop would save him and the king on the turn officially ended the experienced professional’s interest in the event as he went out in eighth place for $76,000.

The American player Andrew Sanchez was next to go, cashing for $98,000 in seventh place when he gambled on the turn of a board showing A-9-9-5 with two clubs holding ace-four of clubs in his hand. Yuefan Wang had ace-jack and faded clubs on the river to hold and take out his opponent.

Soon, six became five, with the elimination of Karabet Keshishyan for $125,000. He called off his stack with pocket fives but lost a flip against the king-queen of Jose Orozco Gomez to depart. With five players left, it was the Mexican Gomez who was next to bust. His ace-three was dominated by Victor Chong’s ace-nine and he collected $163,000.

It wasn’t long before Yuefan Wang joined Gomez on the rail, as the chip leader with five left lost out in fourth for $212,000. All-in with ace-queen, he couldn’t hit against the pocket jacks of Justin Smith, who even rivered a set for good measure as he took a decisive lead into three-handed play.

Smith Makes Magic Memories

“I thought I was going to win it before that because I was chip leader for a while but I took some hits, took some races that I didn’t win.”

Two of the remaining three players were American, and Victor Chong the odd man out from Malaysia. He lost his stack in third for $278,000 when he committed the last of his chips with king-queen on a board showing Q-J-7-A. Justin Smith held ace-six and made the call to send Chong to the rail after a nine fell on the river.

Myles German had laddered much of the way through the final table but fell off the last rung in second place for $367,000. He got his chips in with pocket eights pre-flop for 190 million and with just a third of Smith’s stack was looking to level things up against the champion-in-waiting’s ace-king.

The J-4-2 flop looked safe enough but a third heart on the board landed on the turn of a ten and Smith was drawing to any heart, ace, king or queen to the river. A four of hearts gave him the king-high flush and with it, his first WSOP bracelet along with the top prize of $550,000. Stunned, Smith managed to regain the power of speech in time to talk to PokerNews.

“I actually thought I was going to win it before that because I was chip leader for a while but I took some hits, took some races that I didn’t win,” Smith told them. “I doubled up on that one, and I took the other player out, so it was three of us. I figured I could probably get it done.”

Get it done Smith did and with it, made himself a half-millionaire in one fell swoop. Booked on a flight back to Washington, time will tell if Smith decides to risk a $10,000 brick of his winnings with entry into the WSOP Main Event.