2011 PCA Main Event Won By Galen Hall

Galen Hall has won the 2011 PCA Main Event, after defeating a record field of 1,560 players over six days to lift the trophy, as well as collect the $2.3 million first place prize.
The 24-year-old  US pro is no stranger to online success and has managed to amass $878,897 at PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker since May 28th, 2008. However, Galen Hall’s live tournament record has been less than stellar up until now, with only two cashes worth $6,355.
“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,” said Hall. However, after his  impressive $2.3 million win at the $10k buy-in event in the Bahamas, Galen Hall has now stamped his name firmly on the live tournament circuit.
After Day 1a and 1b was completed, 645 hopefuls began Day 2 with 173 players then returning at the start of Day 3. Day 4 saw 48 players reduced to just 22 who then returned on Day 5 and played down to the final table of 8.
The final table then got underway on Saturday to decide who would eventually be crowned the PCA Main Event Champion. Leading the pack was Chris “Gettin Daize” Oliver way out in front with a massive 19.67m chip stack, followed a distant second by Galen “GasparLeMarc” Hall on 6.43m. The remaining depleted stacks at the table included Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein (5.855m), Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (3.685m), Anton Ionel (3,52m), Max “$Kill Game” Weinberg (3.35m), Bolivar “Ramux” Palacios (2.445m) and Philippe Plouffe (1.555m).
As the short-stacks cannibalised themselves, Chris Oliver took control with five players still remaining while Galen Hall was content to continue playing his patient waiting game holding the second largest stack.
Eventually, Oliver and Hall went heads-up with Oliver holding a 3 to 1 chip advantage over his fellow US opponent. However, after Hall made an impressive lay down holding a straight on the river to Oliver’s full house, things began to change for Hall who then began to chip away at Oliver’s lead.
Three hours into the heads-up battle, Hall took the chip lead for the first time after Oliver moved all-in pre-flop holding A-9 to Hall’s K-K. A few hands later and it was Oliver’s turn to hold the strong pocket pair (Q-Q) whilst fighting for his tournament survival against Hall’s  A-8.
However, it was not to be and the A-K-8 flop failed to improve for Oliver who had to content himself with a runner-up position worth $1.8 million. On the other hand Galen Hall was crowned the 2011 PCA Main Event Champion and walked away richer to the tune of $2.3 million. Commenting on his famous win, Hall said:
“My focus all week, 12-hours a day, has been on playing poker as well as I can and playing every hand as well as I can. It was a very long and gruelling final table and it was also a long, gruelling heads-up match…I feel pretty awesome.”