Senior World Champ Readies for Main Event

Dan Lacourse won $368,832 dollars in the Senior World Championship event in the World Series of Poker on Thursday but he's not headed home to show off his bracelet yet.  He said, "No, no. I gotta stick around, I'm entered in the Main Event now."

The Main Event is the World Championship No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament that takes place after the other 55 events have been played in the World Series of Poker.  The Main Event is going to kick off on July 3rd and so far there are around 6,000 people all waiting to pay their $10,000 dollar buyin to so they can play in the big even.

Lacourse has put himself in training after earning an early dinner he went off to the Bellagio to play in a no limit   hold'em tournament.  Players got $20,000 starting stacks after paying their $2,100 dollar buyin.  He has been training though for a long time though basically since he retired in 2002.

He has played in Texas hold'em tournaments around the Toledo area and at casinos in the Detroit area. "It took a lot of practice," Mr. Lacourse said. "You have to play a lot of cards to get a feel for people's play. You learn to read people and betting patterns."

He has a skill though that many other players don't have.  We all try and perfect our poker face and try to crack our opponents but most times you end up figuring the odds to see what they might be holding.  Well he has professional experience at cracking a poker face.

He has worked in law enforcement for years, he spent 13 years as a detective and also as a polygraph examine.  This has taught him that if body language is going to reveal anything it will probably be in the first three seconds so he watches his fellow players and monitors his own habits.

"I know what a tell is, law enforcement and polygraph-wise, so I don't show any," Mr. Lacourse said. "I will not look at my cards until it's my turn to act. I know what the bet is, and I know what I'm going to do, depending on what my cards are."