Galen Hall wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event

Galen Hall wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event

Monday, 17 January 2011

It seemed written in the stars that Chris Oliver would win the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure 2011 Main Event after a disgusting bout of run-good that saw him take almost half the chips in play to the final table of eight. No one mentioned this to Galen Hall, though, who orchestrated a fantastic comeback to take the title and the $2.3m first prize.

Hall was also involved in the biggest, most looks-like-it-was-set-up-for-TV hand of the tournament... but then again more than half the remaining players at the table were. Chris Oliver kept up his aggression and raised under the gun with Ah-2c, seeing as how the flop would inevitably give him trips. Sam Stein called with 8h-7h and eventual winner Hall put on a squeeze with Kh-2s with a 3-bet to over 700,000.


Small blind Mike Sowers then picked up on this and moved in with As-Jc for a 4-bet bluff only to run into Weinberg holding Q-Q in the big blind. The pot was huge and four spades on the board delivered a horrific beat to keep Sowers alive and cripple Weinberg.


Eventually, Hall and Oliver made it to the heads-up stages with the latter luckbox holding a chip lead of almost 3-1, increased on the very first hand when Hall was forced to fold a straight against Oliver’s rivered full house versus a river check-raise. For hours, Hall attempted to grind back a stack but then quickly doubled through twice in succession.


The last two hands sealed the deal, though – firstly, Oliver put all his chips in holding A-9 against Hall’s K-K which held to ship Hall a huge 40m pot. Oliver got his 7m in the very next hand with Q-Q but couldn’t stay ahead of A-8 when Hall flopped two pair.


“I feel pretty awesome. It still hasn’t set in yet." said the winner. "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.”


The full payouts for the PCA 2011 final table were as follows:


1.Galen Hall $2,300,000
2.Chris Oliver $1,800,000
3.Anton Ionel $1,350,000
4.Sam Stein $1,000,000
5.Mike Sowers $700,000
6.Bolivar Palacios $450,000
7.Max Weinberg $300,000
8.Philippe Plouffe $202,00


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Tags: Poker News, Galen, Hall, wins, PokerStars, Caribbean, Adventure, Main, Event