When Dan Lacourse entered WSOP Event #42 he had just a few small career cashes under his belt, none of them for over four figures and none of them at the WSOP. When the event was done a few days later he walked away with $368,832 top place prize money and his first career WSOP bracelet.
This event was a $1000 buy-in senior’s event, where participants had to be age 50 or over to enter. While this excluded all the internet young guns from entering, the event still drew an amazing 2218 entrants creating a $2,018,380 prize pool. After two days of play the field was narrowed to nine who competed at last night’s final table:
At the start of the night the chip counts were:
Dale Eberle - 1,414,000
Dan Lacourse - 1,364,000
Marc Fluss - 873,000
Jerry Yamachika – 558,000
Charles Wood - 531,000
Fred Berger - 518,000
Ed Clark - 504,000
Marty Wilson - 454,000
Peter Silverstein - 435,000
The final heads up match was between the two starting big stacks, but to first get there we saw the following:
Marty Wilson was eliminated in ninth place receiving $34,312 when his pocket eights failed to out race Fred Berger’s AQ, He was followed to the rail by Ed Clark who finished in eight place for $49,450 when he got all in short stacked with A-7 preflop and ran into Marc Fluss pocket nines.
The next to go was Peter Silverstein who finished in seventh place for a $64,588 when he was all in for less than a blind with 24 off suit and managed to stay ahead until the river made Dan Lacourse’s AQ Broadway.
Charles Wood chose the wrong time to make a bluff and ended up finishing in sixth place for $84,771. On this hand Jerry Yamachika raised to 100K and both Marc Fluss and Charles Wood called from the blinds. The flop came T-8-3, all thee players checked and the turn was a 3. Fluss again checked, but sort of out of no where Wood shoved all-in. Yamachika folded and Fluss made the call. Woods showed K6 and was drawing dead when Fluss revealed his KT holding.
Berger got his money all in bad with pocket twos against Dan Lacourse’s jacks and ended up finishing in fifth Place receiving a solid six figure payday of $106,974. We got down to three handed play after Dan Lacourse raised to 200K, Yamachika moved all-in for 610K and Lacourse called showing AQ against Yamachika’s K J. The board ran Q J 10 8 4 and Yamachika received $131,194 for his fourth place finish.
The next big hand saw Lacourse and Fluss see a flop of 653 from the blinds in an unraised pot. Lacourse led for 160K. Fluss then moved all-in for 655K MORE and Lacourse tanked a bit then called.
Lacourse: Q 4
Fluss: 10 6
The turn was a harmless 8, but a two on the river gave Lacourse the pot and eliminating Fluss in 3rd place worth
It only made sense that the two players coming in with the chip lead would play heads up for the first place prize and the bracelet. When Lacourse and Eberle started heads up Lacourse had a 4.1 million in chips to Eberles 2.5 million. Dale Eberle is a 55 year old retired fire fighter from Akron, Ohio and it was time for these two community service employees to battle it out against each other. Although, the anticipated match only lasted two hands; Eberle was eliminated in second place earning $235,141 on this hand:
Eberle raised to 180,000 preflop and LaCourse called and the flop fell 9h-Ks-9s. LaCourse checked and Eberle bet out 200,000 and received a call. The turn was a 2 of diamonds and LaCourse checked, Eberle fired out a bet of 500,000 and LaCourse re-raised all in and Eberle called. The players revealed:
LaCourse: 9d-7h
Eberle: Kd-4d
The river needed to be a king for Eberle to win the hand and to stay in the tournament. The river brought a 8 of diamonds and LaCourse became the 2008 WSOP Seniors champion.
LaCourse was a member of the Lucas County Deputy Sherrif Department in Toledo, Ohio for 27 years and five of the years he was a polygraph examiner. LaCourse went on to talk about how being a polygraph examiner helped him win this tournament, “Having that experience as a polygraph examiner certainly helped in winning this event. As a polygraph examiner you learn about timing, speed and reactions. At this tournament you can watch players as they get tired, their reactions start changing, they think too much in the beginning of the game, but as they get tired they tend not to think as much. You learn that an initial reaction occurs within the first three seconds and that is what I gauged a player by”
Poker-Prop congratulates Dan Lacourse on winning his first WSOP bracelet and the $368,832 top place prize money.
Leave a comment on this article
Leave A Reply