He picked up pocket tens and got it in on the turn of an board. He was a lock against his opponent's pocket deuces cruising to the knockout and up near the six-figure mark.
Dmitri Novik bagged an under-30,000-chip stack in one of the earlier flights, deciding to fire again to try to build a bigger one tonight.
It's all coming up aces so far — or possibly sixes.
The Buffalonian got it in with versus for a huge pot after they both flopped three sixes. In the end, Novik's kicker played and he heads into the last 20 minutes of play challenging for the chip lead.
The clock was paused with ten minutes remaining in the level and a draw was conducted to determine the number of hands left to play in this flight. They drew a four.
The fourth of six starting flights for this third event on the 2015 Seneca Fall Poker Classic schedule drew 90 entries at the Niagara Falls Poker Room inside the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino tonight.
From there, just 17 made it through to the final day of the $50,000 Guaranteed $100 No-Limit Hold'em event set for Thursday, joining the 40 players already through from the first three flights.
With 303 entries so far, the event isn't exactly on pace to meet the guarantee, In fact, some big numbers are needed to get there over the last two starting flights Wednesday, as they stand 322 entries short right now.
Top local tourney grinder Pat Tighe grabbed the chip lead tonight when he called a five-bet shove from early leader Scott Treutlein on pocket tens. Tighe had aces, aces held and he continued running like a god through the end of 14 levels, busting what seemed like half the remaining field on the way to bagging 238,300 and taking hold of the overall chip lead heading into Day 2.
Dmitri Novik was the only other player past the six-figure mark, although local heroes including Nick Zinter, Cameron Bartolotta, and Jerry Calvaneso bagged close.
With four flights over and done with now, the fifth and sixth flights will go off tomorrow at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time.
Tune in then as PokerNews will be on hand to capture all the action and sweat the overlay from start to finish.