My Trip to the PCA, Part II

by Chad Holloway

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The Main Event of the PCA didn’t finish until Saturday night when the final table reconvened for a revolutionary live (well technically a one-hour delay) broadcast on ESPN 2. The players, their supporters, dealers, tournament staff, cameramen, etc. were all sequestered on a restricted stage so the results couldn’t be revealed during the delay. They had to go through a metal detector and everything. That meant an eliminated player had to sit and wait an hour before being released. The live broadcast process had a few kinks, but all told it was a big success and will likely change the way poker is shown on TV for years to come.

For those interested in the Main Event, here were the final table standings:

Place | Player | Prize

1st Galen Hall $2,300,000

2nd Chris Oliver $1,800,000

3rd Anton Ionel $1,350,000

4th Sam Stein $1,000,000

5th Mike Sowers $700,000

6th Bolivar Palacios $450,000

7th Max Weinberg $300,000

8th Philippe Plouffe $202,000

The Main Event was followed by two more events, the $25,000 High Roller and $5,000 Bounty Shootout. I covered both and they were complete opposite experience. First, the $25K High Roller was an absolute blast. The event drew 151 players, exceeding the most optimistic of expectations, and generated a prize pool of $3,699,500. The field was littered with recognizable faces and the action was of the highest caliber. The final table was completely stacked, and included Will Molson, the man who had finished as runner up in both 2009 and 2010. Amazingly, Molson made it to heads-up play again, facing off against Argentinean Pro Leo Fernandez , and managed to finally take down the title. Molson’s performance in the past three PCA $25K High Rollers is nothing short of spectacular. Here was how that final table ended:

Place | Player | Prize

1st Will Molson $1,072,850

2nd Leo Fernandez $544,925

3rd Max Lykov $369,950

4th Erik Seidel $295,950

5th Govert Metaal $240,470

6th David “Bakes” Baker $203,475

7th Matt Marafioti $166,480

8th Jason Mercier $129,480

At the other end of the spectrum, there was the $5,000 Shootout, which was pure hell. I probably watched Michael Binger sit in the tank thinking about decisions for 5 hours throughout the event. I’m not even exaggerating. I like Michael and think he is a great player, but he is so methodical and deliberate that he takes forever on every decision, even the minimal ones. It was by far the most boring tournament I’ve ever had to cover. In the first round, Binger played heads up for five hours! It wasn’t fun to watch, but I’ve got to give him credit; he battled through a tough match and played great poker. I admired his patience, refusal to quit, and ability to take it down. He managed to win his table in Round 2, having to eliminate his brother Nick in the process. The final table of six lasted somewhere around 12 hours (it took seven hours for the first elimination to occur), which is ridiculous considering it was a winner-take-all tournament (Andrew Chen ended up winning). I was so frustrated and bored that I don’t even want to write about it. Oh, and Binger finished second.

Other highlights from my trip to the PCA:

- Played basketball early one morning with the PokerNews crew, Matt Affleck, Vanessa Selbst, Garry Gates, and a few other people. I hadn’t played basketball in a long time and it showed. Both Affleck and Selbst were surprisingly good.

- Didn’t get to play any poker since we were on work visas; as such, we were forbidden to gamble or play cards.

- Ate at a restaurant in Nassau called “The Poop Deck”. Yes, that is its real name. I was skeptical but soon found out that it was a popular place to go. They had menus that had been signed by celebrities who’d visited hung all over the place. I ate the best mahi-mahi I’ve ever had there.

- Did interviews with Hoyt Corkins and Lars Bonding. Two totally different types of people, but both great guys. Those interviews can be found at PokerNews.com.

- Didn’t play a single hand of poker since we were technically on Bahamian work visas. - Picked up two bottles of Havana Club rum, the best rum in the world and not available in the United States since it is made in Cuba.

In more recent news, on Thursday Feb. 3, 2011, I was sitting at home bored as can be and decided to log online and play in the weekly Twitter Poker Tour tournament run by my good friend Paul Ellis (@coolwhipflea). It is only a $5 tournament but is a lot of fun. Many of the players know each other and the tournament is usually accompanied by a podcast that has special guests and talks about current events in the poker world. To see what it’s all about, visit www.twitterpokertour. Anyway, the week I’m talking about drew 40 players, which was a smaller turnout than usual, and I actually managed to grind out a win. The very first hand my Ac-Qc help up against the A-J of “thereelgator” and I jumped to an early chip lead while sending my opponent to the rail. I managed to stay among the chip leaders all the way to the final table and then went to work stealing the hefty blinds and antes. The cards were in my favor and I finally got a long overdue victory. It was a modest win, but I got some cash and points on the TPT Leaderboard. All in all it was a fun time and I’ll surely play in the future.

Here is how that tournament turned out with TPT points for February:

1st- Chad “DISCO_CHAD” Holloway: 108.79 points

2nd- “cbcdmd”: 76.93 points

3rd- “BLIZGE”: 62.81 points

4th- “Myttazz”: 54.40 points

5th- “matmoeb”: 48.65 points

6th- “cabbagee”: 44.41 points

7th- “vip_nino”: 41.12 points

8th- “snookums101”: 38.46 points

9th- “callmeroger”: 36.26 points

Other than that, I will be heading to Tunica, Mississippi on Saturday Feb. 12, 2011 for PokerNews to do some live reporting on the Main Event of that World Series of Circuit stop. Of course my next blog will touch on that trip. Finally, I want to urge you to get on Twitter if you’re not already. News spreads in the poker world via Twitter like no other outlet. Once you’re on, search the following people and give them a follow, they Tweet some great stuff and will keep you on top of everything you need to know in poker: @ChadAHolloway, @RealPhilLaak, @PokerNews, @Donnie_Peters, @Eric_Ramsey, @Change100, @PredictemPoker and @PokerProMag.