Elliot Smith Leads the $2,500 Freezeout Final Table. His Résumé Says He Shouldn't.

The chip leader at the $2,500 Freezeout final table has $146,226 in lifetime tournament earnings. That's roughly what Chino Rheem, three seats to his left, has cashed in a single event.

Elliot Smith, a Canadian with zero bracelets and zero rings, sits on 3,925,000 chips as nine players return for the final day of WSOP Event #49. The man chasing him? David "Chino" Rheem, who carries $10.52 million in lifetime cashes, 31 career final tables, and a stack of 9,775,000 that dwarfs Smith's by nearly 2.5-to-1.

Elliot Smith, a Canadian with zero bracelets and zero rings, sits on 3,925,000 chips as nine players return for the final day of WSOP Event #49.

The Stack Landscape

Smith isn't actually the short stack. That distinction matters. But he's not the big stack either, despite what the "chip leader" label on the WSOP leaderboard briefly suggested before the full counts posted.

Here's the final-table picture by chips:

• Kenzo Ishida (Japan): 9,935,000
• David "Chino" Rheem (US): 9,775,000
• Marco Johnson (US): 8,415,000
• Elliot Smith (Canada): 3,925,000
• Srivinay Irrinki (US): 3,295,000

Those are the five named stacks. Ishida, a Japanese player with just $3,660 in recorded lifetime earnings, actually holds the overall chip lead. His résumé makes Smith's look like a bibliography.

But the real tension sits between seats, not on them.

The Résumé Gap

Rheem and Marco Johnson combine for $15.55 million in career tournament cashes and 68 final-table appearances between them. Johnson alone has two WSOP bracelets and $5.03 million in earnings. These are players who have been in this exact position dozens of times: nine-handed, under the lights, gold on the line.

Smith and Ishida have been here a combined zero times, at least by the public record. Irrinki has one prior final table and $251,780 in lifetime earnings.

That split creates an unusual dynamic. Three players at this table have navigated final-table ICM spots with seven and eight figures on the line. Two others have never seen anything close. The freezeout format amplifies the gap: no re-entries mean no second chances, but they also mean every player at this table earned their seat through a single bullet. Smith didn't buy his way back in. He played his way here, stack intact, against a field that included multiple millionaires.

What Makes This Interesting

The $2,500 Freezeout attracts a specific type of field. The buy-in is high enough to thin out recreational players but low enough that mid-stakes grinders and international travelers can justify the shot. It's a one-and-done event in a summer full of unlimited re-entries, which means the players who reach the final table survived without a safety net.

Smith's 3,925,000 puts him at roughly 40% of Ishida's stack and 47% of Johnson's. He'll need to double early or find spots to chip up before the blinds compress his range. The gap between his stack and the top three is significant but not insurmountable, especially at a nine-handed table where shorter stacks create fold equity.

Ishida's presence at the top of the counts is the quietest story here. A player with $3,660 in tracked earnings leading a WSOP final table over Chino Rheem and Marco Johnson is the kind of line that makes you double-check the database. The database checks out.

The Bracelet Math

Rheem has zero WSOP bracelets despite $10.52 million in tournament earnings. That number alone tells a story about how many times he's been close without finishing the job. Johnson, by contrast, has two. A third would put him in rare company for active mid-stakes circuit players.

For Smith and Ishida, a win here wouldn't just be a first bracelet. It would multiply their lifetime earnings several times over in a single night.

Nine players. One bracelet. At least three of them have no business being here, according to the résumés. The cards don't read résumés.