Mark Lillge Leads the Final Table of Event #31: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship; Heimiller Still Alive Looking to Win His Second Seniors Title
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.