From the button, Anthony Licastro raised to 240,000. Lewis LeClair then moved all in from the small blind for 1,140,000. From the big blind, Eluterio Rodriguez moved all in for 1,050,000. Licastro folded, and the hands were turned up.
Rodriguez:
LeClair:
It looked as if it would end in a chop, but the flop came , giving LeClair a flush draw and Rodriguez a backdoor flush draw, as well. The on the turn sealed Rodriguez's fate, though, as it made LeClair the winning flush. The river was the , and Rodriguez was eliminated in 10th place, bringing the final nine players down to the official final table.
There were 67 players returning to start Day 3 of Event #31: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship, and starting the day in the lead was Dan Heimiller. For a while, it looked as if Heimiller might steamroll his was through the tournament. At the start of the day, Heimiller couldn’t seem to lose a pot. He won multiple coin flips and always seemed to have his opponents all in and at risk while dominated.
Unfortunately for Heimiller, he ran into a massive cooler right at the end of the night, and he lost most of the lead he had amassed when his pocket kings ran into the pocket aces of Frank Maggio. Heimiller managed to make a slight rebound at the end of the night to finish in the middle of the pack, looking to lock up his second Seniors’ Championship. He'll return tomorrow with 2,970,000, which puts him fourth in chips.
Finishing on the top was Mark Lillge. Lillge eliminated Bill Klein in 12th Place ($41,97) when Klein shoved all in with pocket twos and Lillge woke up with pocket jacks in the big blind. Lillge also picked up a big double through Paul Spitzberg, who finished the night eighth in chips (1,320,000) when his ace-king out-raced Spitzbergs pocket queens.
With many short stacks, players fell relatively quickly at the start of the day. Bracelet Winner Larry Wright dropped early (64th for $7,693), as did bracelet winner Blair Rodman (60th for $9,239). Eluterio Rodriguez, who finished Day 2 second in chips, fell at the very end of the night, becoming the final table bubble boy when Lewis LeClair’s ace-king made a flush against his own. He took home $41,972 for his 10th-place finish, while the final nine bagged up to get some rest for Day 4 and the final table.
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Gina Bacon
United States
960,000
16
2
Mark Lillge
United States
5,300,000
88
3
Paul Spitzberg
United States
1,320,000
22
4
Anthony Licastro
United States
2,800,000
47
5
Lewis LeClair
United States
2,530,000
42
6
William Murray
United States
4,000,000
67
7
Dan Heimiller
United States
2,970,000
50
8
Frank Maggio
United States
4,910,000
82
9
Dieter Dechant
United States
2,375,000
40
There are 50:52 minutes left in Level 29 with blinds of 40,000/80,000 and a running ante of 10,000. The final table will commence at 12 p.m. PDT on Monday and will play down to a winner over on the live-streamed feature table. PokerNews will be here with all the action, so be sure to stay tuned.