Yorky Pud

Twenty-four year old Galen Hall from San Francisco is the latest in a long line of poker players who have become multi-millionaires after he won the 2011 PCA Main Event for a wallet-bursting $2,300,000 payout, defeating Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver heads up, despite trailing him by more than 20,000,000 chips going into the one of one section of the tournament.

For the first time in live poker tournament history the final table was broadcast almost-live on ESPN, with an hour delay between what happened being shown on television. If the show was well received it could prove to be the latest gimmick in tournament poker.

The first player to be shown busting out was Canadian Phillipe Plouff who looked down at QsQh and decided to three-bet all in after he saw Oliver open-limp and Hall raise the action up. Oliver folded to Plouff's shove but Hall, holding AcKh was going nowhere and made the call. No help for Hall on a Jc-Td-Th flop, and when the 4d peeled off on the turn it looked like a timely double up for the shortest stack at the table was on the cards. However, all thoughts of that were dashed as Hall paired his ace on the river to send Plouff to the rail, a result worth a career-best $202,000.

An hour later, with blinds at 60,000/120,000/15,000a, Hall min-raised from the cutoff seat with JdTc and when the button and small blind folded, Max “$Kill Game” Weinberg moved all in for around 900,000 holding Ac8s and Hall wasted little time in calling his opponent. He was rewarded for doing so as the final board ran out 9c-Td-Kd-Qc-Kc, condemning Weinberg to seventh place and the $300,000 prize money.

Hall continued hoovering up chips during the next blind level, again choosing to open the betting with a min-raise and then call his opponent's all-in three-bet. This time around he made it 320,000 to play then quickly put in the required number of chips when Bolivar Palacios went all in for 1,600,000 holding KdJh. Hall's Ad4s was already in front preflop and it extended that lead on a 9h-8h-4c flop. The Qc on the turn gave Palacios some extra outs but they failed to materialise as the 3d fell on the river to take the tie to five handed play.

Many saw Mike Sowers as Oliver's biggest threat at this final table but that threat was nullified an hour after Palacios' demise. Sowers got the ball rolling by raising to 340,000 from early position with pocket fours, a bet that was re-raised to 775,000 by Oliver on the button. Only Sowers called before checking to the hyper-aggressive Oliver on a 3d-8h-2s flop. Oliver continuation bet to slightly over 1,000,000, Sowers check-raised all in for around 5,000,000 chips but knew he was in bad shape when Oliver snapped him off. His hand? The lowly 8s2h, which had made an unlikely two pair. Sowers looked disgusted as the dealer put out the Kc and 7s on the turn and river respectively to send him home in fifth place, worth $700,000, and meaning everyone else would take home at least a million dollars!

Less than 30 minutes later and Stein was on his way to pick up his million dollar cheque. With blinds now really starting to bite at 100,000/200,000/20,000a, Oliver raised to 455,000 on the button, Stein three-bet to 1,189,000 only to see Oliver quickly move all in. This sent Stein into the tank and rightly so because his Ah9h was ahead of Stein's range of late as he seemed to be playing literally any two cards. He came out of the tank and announced call, but quickly wished he could take it back as Oliver showed he had a real hand this time, AdQd. Neither player improved in a Kh-Ts-5s-Kd-3s board and Stein left the table $1,000,000 richer than when he started.

Three became two just ten minutes later when Romanian businessman Anton Ionel was caught making a move by Hall. The latter raised from the button, Oliver flat-called and Ionel quickly moved all in with just Ks6s. Hall, who had shown a willingness to gamble with less than premium hands, called with KcQs and when Oliver folded, the dealer got to work with the community cards. Hall paired his queen with the first card out of the deck and when the other four cards read 9c-7d-5d-3s the tournament was taken to the heads up stage.

Oliver, who started the say with 12,000,000 chips more than Hall, now held a 33,395,000 to 13,100,000 advantage over his opponent but Hall did not seem bothered in the slightest, even when he dropped to around 6,000,000 chips. When the tournament is shown again keep an eye out for the world-class fold by Hall, who mucked a wheel when Oliver had hit an unlikely full house on the river. I simply cannot do it justice in words!

A major turning point came when Hall raised from the button to 650,000 holding Ad2h and Oliver made a loose call with 4s2s, which turned out to be his downfall as the flop came down 2c-4h-As, giving both players two pair. Oliver checked, Hall bet 675,000, Oliver then made it 1,575,000 to play before Hall clicked it back for 2,675,000. Strangely, Oliver also made a min-raise of 3,775,000 then quickly called when Hall shoved. He looked extremely angry, even slapping the table, as he realised he was drawing very thinly indeed. The 8s on the turn and the 6d on the river failed to change anything and Hall was back in contention with 19,700,000 chips.

Hall doubled again the very next hand when Oliver raised to 750,000 with Ah9s and Hall made it 1,900,000 with a pair of black kings! Oliver then put in another raise, this time to 4,300,000 and then shoved over Oliver's min-five-bet! Oliver called and again looked disappointed when he saw Hall's hand. The final board ran out 8h-7d-3d-4s-Qh and suddenly Hall had almost 40,000,000 chips in his stack and was in a commanding position.

Half hour later and it was all over as Hall opened with Ac8c and called Oliver's all-in bet holding QhQc. The flop was queen-cracking As-Kd-8s, giving Hall the advantage. His two pair stayed ahead with the arrival of the 2h on the turn and when the river was the Ks, it was game over for Oliver who picked up the consolation prize of $1,800,000.

Hall, a worthy winner, picked up the $2,300,000 first prize and informed the press and media representatives that he planned to use the money to help him through University in 2012. We wish him the very best of luckk in his future endeavours and offer him many congratulations on his break-through victory.