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The 2017 World Series of Poker $1,000 buy-in seniors championship no-limit hold’em event attracted a record field of 5,389. Turnout for the event was up over 19 percent from the previous highest turnout of 4,499 just last year. The tournament, which is only open to players 50 years of age or older, built a gigantic $4,850,100 prize pool as a result of the incredible turnout. In the end the lion’s share of that money was awarded to 56-year-old Frank Maggio. The Calumet City, Illinois emerged victorious from that sea of players to capture the top prize of $617,303 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

“I come out here every year since I turned 50 to play in the Seniors event," Maggio told WSOP reporters after it was all over. “I cashed a couple of years ago, but this year is a big surprise.”

Maggio had only roughly $40,000 in prior tournament cashes entering this event and had not yet made a WSOP final table prior to winning this event. Now his name will go down in the record books as the winner of the largest ever WSOP seniors championship.

This event was originally slated to last only three days, but due to the massive turnout an unscheduled fourth day was added to play out the final table. Maggio came into the final table in second chip position with nine players remaining. The first player to go was 2014 champion of this event Dan Heimiller. He ran pocket jacks into the pocket kings of William Murray and was unable to come from behind to win.

Murray put his newfound chips to good use and was able to accumulate and survive to heads-up play with Maggio, who had taken the chip lead midway through the day when his AK won a preflop race against Anthony Licastro’s pocket tens.

Murray entered the final showdown with a slight lead over Maggio, but the tables were quickly turned. On only the eighth hand of heads-up action Murray raised to 800,000 with the blinds at 80,000 – 160,000 with an ante of 20,000. Maggio three-bet to 2,400,000 and Murray made the call. The flop brought the Q32 and Maggio bet 1,900,000. Murray raised to 4,000,000 only to have Maggio raise all in. Maggio had Murray covered. Murray eventually decided to make the call with the A3 for middle pair. Maggio was in the lead with the JJ. The 8 hit the turn and the 2 rolled off the deck on the river to secure the pot for Maggio. Murray was eliminated in second place, earning $381,233 for his deep run.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded in this event:

Place
Player
Earnings (USD)

1
Frank Maggio
$617,303

2
William Murray
$381,233

3
Dieter Dechant
$281,691

4
Mark Lillge
$209,715

5
Anthony Licastro
$157,321

6
Gina Bacon
$118,923

7
Lewis LeClair
$90,594

8
Paul Spitzberg
$69,552

9
Dan Heimiller
$53,817

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2017 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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