2012 PCA Begins in the Bahamas

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 06 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

The Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island will be the destination of many poker players over the next ten days.

A whopping field of 1,560 came out for last year's $10,000 PCA Main Event, eventually won in dramatic fashion by Galen Hall after coming from behind against Chris Oliver during heads-up play. Hall earned $2.3 million for the victory.

While some of the poker world's attention will be on Ireland over the next few days where the World Poker Tour is hosting a Main Event, many will be following the action from the Bahamas where the eighth-annual PokerStars Caribbean Adventure will be playing out at the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island.

While the first-ever WPT Ireland event ultimately attracted 338 players to the Citywest Hotel in Dublin to participate in the €2,500 buy-in main event, there will likely be a much larger group making the trek to warmer climes for the PCA. That is, if last year's turnout is any indication.

A year ago it was Galen Hall kicking off the 2011 professional tourney circuit by claiming a huge $2.3 million payday, besting a whopping field of 1,560 runners to take the title.

Eugene Katchalov also started 2011 well at the PCA, the $1.5 million he claimed for winning the $100K Super High Roller helping kick off a year in which he would ultimately earn BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year honors. And William Molson won a cool $1,072,850 for topping a field of 151 in the $25,000 High Roller event, including a tough final table that included Jason Mercier, David Baker, Erik Seidel, Max Lykov, and Leo Fernandez.

This year's PCA began yesterday with the $100K Super High Roller event for which a total of 30 players registered. Two of those felted on the first day -- Jonathan Duhamel and Bill Perkins -- took the option to rebuy into the event, with Perkins getting knocked out again and Duhamel surviving to Day 2. Those rebuys helped build the total prize pool to $3,136,000, to be divided up among the top five finishers with $1,254,400 reserved for the winner.

Just 18 players made it through to today's second day of play, with Isaac Haxton leading the way followed by Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, Erik Seidel, and Duhamel. Among those failing to make it through Thursday were David Benefield, Philipp Gruissem, Matt Glantz, Bryn Kenney, and Katchalov.

Most eyes will be focused on that $100K Super High Roller that concludes on Saturday and the $10,300 Main Event that begins tomorrow and runs through next Friday, January 13. However, more than 40 events will be playing out over the next week-and-a-half on a packed PCA series schedule.

Among the other events are numerous no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha tournaments as well as PLO8, H.O.E., Omaha-8/Stud-8, and 8-game mixed events. Some of these tournies are "turbo" format and some feature knockout bounties.

There is a Women's event and a Heads-Up event, as well as some uniquely formatted tournies, too, such as a "dealer's choice, 4 or 5 cards" PLO tourney and the Two Plus Two Players Choice event, "Paradise Pick'em," a variation on H.O.R.S.E. in which players are dealt partial hands, then the player with the button gets to select the game before the remainder of the hands are dealt.

Buy-ins for most of the tournaments range from $1,100 to $5,250, with some as low as $300. There are also a couple of extra "High Roller" events on the PCA schedule, a $25,500 eight-handed NLHE event and a $10,200 six-handed NLHE Turbo tourney.

The PCA actually began as a World Poker Tour event back in 2004, taking place on a cruise ship that sailed around from Miami to Mexico and the Cayman Islands while Gus Hansen won the first ever PCA Main Event.

The series moved to the Atlantis the following year, and has grown each year since, with its place at the start of the calendar year often helping to mark it as a setting for break-out performances by rising stars in the poker world. For example, in 2008 when Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier claimed his first major tournament victory in the Main Event and $2 million, he instantly became a player to watch thereafter.

Such was also the case with Galen Hall's Main Event victory last year. Hall followed that win with deep runs in European Poker Tour and WSOP events, as well as a third-place finish in the $25K World Poker Tour Five Star World Poker Classic event in May.

Many watched Hall's dramatic victory at the PCA on ESPN2 last January in an early experiment with "almost live" poker programming. The final table was shown on a one-hour delay with hole cards, which meant we were able to see Hall make a truly amazing fold to preserve his tourney life when heads-up against then-leader Chris Oliver.

The hand began with Oliver enjoying a commanding chip lead with almost 34 million while Hall had just over 12.6 million. With the blinds and antes putting 340,000 in the middle preflop, Hall opened with a button raise to 450,000 holding 8c-4h and Oliver called with Ad-2s. The flop came 5d-3d-2c, and Oliver checked. Hall bet 575,000 and Oliver quickly called with his pair of deuces, splashing his chips as he did.

The turn was the 2h, giving Oliver trips, and he checked again. Hall checked as well. The river then brought the As, filling Oliver's full house and giving Hall a straight.

Oliver checked right away, surprising Daniel Negreanu who was doing commentary on the broadcast, and Hall bet 1.2 million into the pot of just over 2 million. "Hall absolutely thinks he has the best hand, and why wouldn't he?" said Negreanu. Oliver then took about half a minute before declaring himself all in, and Hall went deep into the tank to consider what to do.

"That is a large bet," said Hall as he tried to think the hand through. Finally, after more than three minutes of consideration, Hall let his straight go. "Incredible," said Negreanu, correctly predicting that the hand would prove a turning point in the match.

Indeed, after running over the final table to that point thanks to aggressive play and picking up some hands, Oliver would soon see his big chip lead reduced by Hall who three-and-a-half hours later would win the title.

We'll see what stories emerge from the Bahamas in the coming week, and whether anything will match the drama of last January's Main Event.

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