$1,000 Main Event
Day 3 Started
$1,000 Main Event
Day 3 Started
One of the hottest players in the Western New York poker scene over the past two years will look to go wire-to-wire in the final six and win his second Seneca Niagara major when the third and final day of the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event goes off inside the Niagara Falls Poker Room beginning at 12 p.m. local time today.
Alden, NY's Rick Block will bring his championship pedigree, having won the 2014 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event, and the chip lead, into the $1,000 buy-in event's final day today. But closing this one out will be no easy feat.
Dan Wagner, whose career best score was the $109,114 he earned finishing runner-up in the $1,100 event at the 2015 Fallsview Poker Classic on the other side of the falls last year, is trailing by just a few chips, and this end-game boss will not go away quietly.
Plus, although they trail, the rest of the final six, including Ray LaRouech, Charles Johnson, Joseph Reichenbacher, and Newton Graziano, are still stacked deep enough to do some damage.
Each of these players will come into play guaranteed at least the $9,907 reserved for sixth, but five-figure scores await each of the final five, and along with Seneca Niagara poker glory, there's a hefty $52,768 up top.
PokerNews will be on the scene from the call to shuffle up and deal until the 2016 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event champion is crowned and you are welcome to follow all the action right here in this space.
Level: 24
Blinds: 12,000/24,000
Ante: 3,000
Play resumes six-handed with 27 minutes left in Level 24.
Ray LaRouech has started out as the most aggressive player on the felt today, but it hasn't exactly worked out.
First, he raised and c-bet , getting stationed up by Newton Graziano with after he made a pair. Then, he raise-called a Rick Block three-bet with the and chased a flush draw calling bets all the way to a checked-down river, only to be outkicked by Block's on a board, losing almost 500,000 in the pot.
"That didn't really work out," he said.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Rick Block |
2,300,000
476,000
|
476,000 |
Newton Graziano |
1,000,000
214,000
|
214,000 |
Ray LaRouech |
300,000
-719,000
|
-719,000 |
Some early fireworks have seen Joseph Reichenbacher dispatched to the rail.
Dan Wagner made it 52,000 from the cutoff and Reichenbacher called from the button. Charles Johnson came along for the ride and they went three-handed to the flop. Johnson checked and Wagner continued for 81,000. Both players called and the turn came the .
Johnson and Wagner checked, but Reichenbacher moved in for 489,000. Johnson took his time, but eventually called before Wagner moved all in over the top.
Johnson let it go and the hands were revealed:
Wagner:
Reichenbacher:
Reichenbacher was crushed by Wagner's trip sevens with an ace and with Johnson claiming pocket nines and happy to still be here, Reichenbacher hit the rail.
On over three million now, Wagner is firmly in control five-handed.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dan Wagner |
3,200,000
1,395,000
|
1,395,000 |
Charles Johnson |
500,000
-454,000
|
-454,000 |
Joseph Reichenbacher | Busted |
Level: 25
Blinds: 15,000/30,000
Ante: 4,000
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dan Wagner |
3,188,000
-12,000
|
-12,000 |
Rick Block |
2,357,000
57,000
|
57,000 |
Newton Graziano |
898,000
-102,000
|
-102,000 |
Charles Johnson |
505,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
Ray LaRouech |
353,000
53,000
|
53,000 |
Big stack Dan Wagner shoved the button into the two smallest stacks' blinds. Charles Johnson decided to look him up from the small blind, calling all in for his tournament life with the .
Wagner was crushed with the and almost got lucky on the board, but didn't. Johnson is now out of the basement, but Wagner still sits on top
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dan Wagner |
2,700,000
-488,000
|
-488,000 |
Charles Johnson |
850,000
345,000
|
345,000 |
Ray LaRouech has risen from the ashes here, picking up aces and Charles Johnson's big blind an unfathomable amount of times over the past 30 minutes.
In fact, he has shown aces twice and continues the long slow climb out of the basement here with a series of unconventional more-than-three-times the blind opening raises that appear to be working.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Ray LaRouech |
580,000
227,000
|
227,000 |