Galen Hall upsets Chris Oliver to win PCA
PokerStars Carribean Adventure won by American pro Galen Hall
| by Alligator Blood |  January, 16th 2011 |
Overall: 5
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Above: Galen Hall beat Chris Oliver to win the PCA 2011 Main Event
Galen Hall caused a massive upset when he beat huge chip leader Chris Oliver to land the PCA title in the early hours of this morning.
The 24-year-old, who was more than 13 million chips behind heading into the final table, snatched the trophy from the 21-year-old high school dropout after an exhausting nine hour final.
Hall, who has only been a professional poker player for a year, plans to use his enormous $2.3million win to pay for his MBA at Stanford University, which he will start in September.
He said: "I feel pretty awesome.
"It still hasn’t set in yet. We played heads-up for a really long time so I haven’t been thinking about the win.
"Up until this event, I’ve been a very terrible live tournament player. I have a pretty impressive track record of busting on Day 1.”
Runner-up Chris Oliver, who infuriated his parents by quitting high school to play more poker, won his seat to the PCA online - turning a $920 investment into a mouthwatering $1.8 million.
Hall took down the tournament after doubling up early in heads-up when his kings held up against Oliver's A♥9♠.
That put him into a strong lead, and he never looked back. When he found A♣8♣ in the hole soon after he called an all-in bet from Oliver, whose queens were soon cracked when Hall flopped two pair.
It meant the long-time chip leader would be leaving the Bahamas with a mere $1.8million in his back pocket - half-a-million dollars less than he must have expected at the start of the final table.
This year's PCA was the biggest poker tournament ever held outside Las Vegas. The huge festival saw 7,800 entries with more than $32 million handed out in prize money.
Jeffrey Haas, MD of Global Poker Tours Ltd, said: “The Caribbean Adventure is our flagship event and continues to grow year on year.
"Our pride in this event is not just about breaking records; it’s also about providing players from all over the world with an incredible experience, whether they’re high rollers, online pros or recreational players playing in their very first live event.”
PCA Main Event 2011
Final results and winnings
1 Galen Hall USA $2,300,000
2 Chris Oliver USA Online qualifier $1,800,000
3 Anton Ionel Romania Online qualifier $1,350,000
4 Sam Stein USA Online qualifier $1,000,000
5 Mike Sowers USA $700,000
6 Bolivar Palacios Panama $450,000
7 Max Weinberg USA $300,000
8 Phillipe Plouffe Canada Online qualifier $202,000
