The 2008 WSOP continued its trend of offering something for nearly everyone in the Seniors No Limit Hold’em World Championship. 2,218 seniors came calling with their $1,000 bets upfront and their buy-ins created a prize pool of $2,018,380.
Even though this was a seniors event, that didn’t mean there was any lack of talent in the field. Johnny Chan, Amarillo “Slim” Preston, Men Nguyen, Mike Caro and Avery Cardoza all participated in this tournament.
Preston, Nguyen, and Cardoza all did well enough to move onto day 2 and joined the 220 person crowd that would be competing for the 198 spots that cashed in the tourney.
Here’s how the top 10 looked:
Rank/Player/Chips
1. Duane Gerleman – 139,800
2. Steve Fager – 101,700
3. Dale Eberle – 86,200
4. Tom Franklin – 84,100
5. Men Nguyen – 81,500
6. Dempster Ross – 75,800
7. Avery Cardoza – 73,100
8. Ralph Wetterhahn – 70,800
9. Gregory Alston – 69,000
10. Lonnie Boeding — 68,500
Day 2 would be a different story for most of the players in the top 10 as other people in the field began making a move towards securing a spot in the top 9.
The bigger names like Preston, Cardoza, and Nguyen were among those whose fortunes would change for the worse on the second day. The people who made the final table are as follows:
Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Marc Fluss – 873,000
Seat 2: Charles Wood – 531,000
Seat 3: Ed Clark – 504,000
Seat 4: Marty Wilson – 454,000
Seat 5: Peter Silverstein – 435,000
Seat 6: Dale Eberle – 1,414,000
Seat 7: Fred Berger – 518,000
Seat 8: Dan Lacourse – 1,364,000
Seat 9: Jerry Yamachika – 558,000
Marty Wilson came in with one of the smaller stacks to start the day and it never really got any bigger for him as Fred Berger flopped a set of queens to beat him. A set would be the reason for another elimination in Ed Clark as it was Marc Fluss hitting it this time.
7th place would belong to Pet Silverstein as he was forced to go all-in with a dwindling stack and it didn’t pay off for him. Marc Fluss knocked Charles Wood out of the tournament next when he simply held a better hole combo in K-10 to K-6.
Fred Berger made a mistake when he went all-in with pocket 2’s only to be eliminated when Dan Lacourse’s pocket jacks turned into a set.
Jerry Yamachika had been doing well earlier but he would take 4th after Lacourse had a pair of queens against nothing. Lacourse narrowed things down to heads-up when he took out Marc Fluss next.
Down to him and Dale Eberle, Lacourse would flop a set of 9’s on the final hand to win the seniors tourney and get $368,832 in the process.
Here’s how the top 25 faired:
Rank/Player/Money
1. Dan Lacourse $368,832
2. Dale Eberle $235,141
3. Marc Fluss $156,424
4. Jerry Yamachika $131,194
5. Fred Berger $106,974
6. Charles Wood $84,771
7. Peter Silverstein $64,588
8. Edward Clark $49,450
9. Martin (Marty) Wilson $34,312
10. Ronald Puelo $22,202
11. Mike Allis $22,202
12. Chris Platt $22,202
13. Edgardo Villareal $17,156
14. Mick Bentrup $17,156
15. James Duke $17,156
16. Henry Hudson $12,110
17. John Bonar $12,110
18. Gary Dishongh $12,110
19. Gregory Alston $9,688
20. Michael Thulson $9,688
21. Bobby Bland $9,688
22. Daniel Spear $9,688
23. Duane Gerleman $9,688
24. Harold Hensley $9,688
25. Theodore Brooks $9,688