Daniel Smith has emerged as a worthy winner of the 2026 PartyPoker Tour London (Summer Edition) £500 Main Event, defeating Chris Yong heads-up to take the trophy and the £22,500 first-place prize.
The Welshman went wire-to-wire on the final day, starting with a slight lead over Yong, both of whom had clear daylight between the rest of the field. The duo proceeded to wield their stacks expertly to pressure opponents throughout, and reach the final showdown.
The result marks a new career-best score for Smith, following his victory in a mystery bounty event at The Festival in Bratislava for £18,000 in 2023.
Smith spun a free satellite ticket into his Main Event entry online at PartyPoker, making the victory even sweeter.
2026 PartyPoker Tour London (Summer Edition) £500 Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 |  Daniel Smith | Wales | £22,500 |
| 2 |  Chris Yong | United Kingdom | £15,000 |
| 3 |  Barry Donovan | Ireland | £10,000 |
| 4 | Deniz Orhan | United Kingdom | £7,750 |
| 5 | Matt Horn | United Kingdom | £6,250 |
| 6 | James Korek | United Kingdom | £5,000 |
| 7 |  Ivan Meister | Kazakhstan | £4,000 |
| 8 | James Marshall | United Kingdom | £3,250 |
| 9 | Vikrum Mehta | United Kingdom | £2,500 |
Winner’s Interview
Smith was delighted to be standing with the trophy, saying “It feels great, really happy. I missed my flight to play this, but it was worth it! I satellited online with a free ticket, so amazing. It’s my biggest live poker win, which will fund a nice dinner! I’ve been to a few PartyPoker Tour stops and it’s nice to get a trophy!”
Final Table Recap
The nine players left standing from the 190-runner field returned with Smith (2,455,000) and Yong (2,070,000) holding commanding leads, while Barry Donovan (1,100,000) led the chasing pack, and Vikrum Mehta started off as the relative short-stack.
Smith got off to a strong start by ending any hopes Mehta had of a spin-up, when Smith’s pocket pair held in a flip. Smith got thin value from James Marshall, before he took a hit when he ran into the aces of Matt Horn.
Donovan found trip kings to damage Marshall, who exited shortly after to Yong, while short-stacks Ivan Meister and Deniz Orhan both found double-ups before the first break to stay in it.
Yong and Smith were still out in front at the start of the second stint, and a flurry of knockouts thinned the field in rapid fashion. First, Meister met his maker in the form of Barry Donovan’s flipping abilities to exit in seventh, before James Korek lost a race against the champion’s deuces.
Yong disposed of Horn in fifth after turning a straight, leaving Orhan as the short-stack. He battled valiantly in his attempt to resurrect his bid for a second Main Event win, but ultimately fell to Yong.
Three-handed with Donovan and Smith, Yong suddenly went on a heater, making successive flushes to leave the eventual champion short.
However, Smith found cowboys to double through Yong at the perfect time. Yong would recover by turning the nut straight against Donovan’s turned flush and wrap draw, and would hold when the chips hit the middle, sending the Irishman to the rail in third.
Yong started heads-up play with a nearly 3:1 lead over Smith, but Smith hit the front when he woke up with a superior pair to his opponent. Smith again found kings, and then ace-king, in short order to leave Yong on the ropes.
The decisive blow was dealt when Yong committed his final chips with a medium-strength suited king, but found he was dominated. Smith proceeded to flop the flush and leave Yong drawing dead, allowing the champion to celebrate victory with his rail before the runout had even been completed.
2026 PartyPoker Tour London (Summer Edition) £500 Main Event Full Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Daniel Smith | Wales | £22,500 |
| 2 | Chris Yong | United Kingdom | £15,000 |
| 3 | Barry Donovan | Ireland | £10,000 |
| 4 | Deniz Orhan | United Kingdom | £7,750 |
| 5 | Matt Horn | United Kingdom | £6,250 |
| 6 | James Korek | United Kingdom | £5,000 |
| 7 | Ivan Meister | Kazakhstan | £4,000 |
| 8 | James Marshall | United Kingdom | £3,250 |
| 9 | Vikrum Mehta | United Kingdom | £2,500 |
| 10 | Stephen Gee | United Kingdom | £2,000 |
| 11 | Nicholas Rishover | United Kingdom | £2,000 |
| 12 | Adam Clancey | United Kingdom | £1,750 |
| 13 | Yuet Wong | United Kingdom | £1,750 |
| 14 | Jitin Dhawan | United Kingdom | £1,500 |
| 15 | Conor O’Driscoll | Ireland | £1,500 |
| 16 | Matthew Harniman | United Kingdom | £1,250 |
| 17 | Lin Chen | United Kingdom | £1,250 |
| 18 | Richard Connolly | United Kingdom | £1,250 |
| 19 | Jan Van den Bogert | United Kingdom | £1,250 |
| 20 | Ashkan Ahmedov | United Kingdom | £1,250 |
| 21 | Bradley Morrical | United Kingdom | £1,000 |
| 22 |  Florin Trif | Romania | £1,000 |
| 23 | Steven Ferguson | United Kingdom | £1,000 |
| 24 | Sebastian Constable | United Kingdom | £1,000 |
| 25 | Robert Garfield | United Kingdom | £1,000 |
| 26 | Simeon Sharr | United Kingdom | £1,000 |
| 27 | David Pollock | United Kingdom | £500 |
| 28 | Michael Hewes | United Kingdom | £500 |
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