Will Molson Finally Wins PCA High Roller Event

Though yesterday’s big news was indubitably the PCA’s Main Event final table, other big events were going down this weekend in the Bahamas. Just ask Will Molson, this year’s PCA $25,000 High Roller Champion. His event was noteworthy not just because it nearly doubled its entries this year with 151 players, or because it offered the winner a more than $1 million payout, but because this just happened to be Molson’s third consecutive year to compete in the heads-up portion.

That’s right; in case you haven’t heard, Molson is the master of the PCA High Roller…almost. In 2009 and 2010, Molson nearly took down the whole shebang but fell just short with two consecutive second place finishes. This year, after paying his dues yet again, Molson was finally the last man standing. It was a good year to win, too, considering that the prize pool of nearly $4 million is by far the event’s biggest yet. Molson’s share for first was an impressive $1,072,850.

For those of you that have been following the young Canadian’s relatively short career, that sum will more than double Molson’s lifetime live tournament earnings which prior to today stood at a little more than three quarters of a million. In two years of play, Molson has posted eight live cashes, though his win today was his very first. “It feels amazing; what a relief,” gushed a flushed and exuberant Molson to the press around the final table.

Molson started the day toward the back of a twelve player pack. His stack was barely half of chip leader Jason Mercier’s and yet he managed to outlast a field that also included heavyweights like Matt Affleck, Thomas Marchese and Erik Seidel. Since high roller has always been Molson’s format of choice, he’s fallen to some of these players before – namely Mercier early in 2010. But when the heads-up portion of the event began, the only man standing in Molson’s way was Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez. “I tried not to think about it,” Molson admitted of going into the heads-up action again after two years of runner-up finishes.

While Molson was celebrating tonight, the last big event on the 2011 Caribbean Adventure’s agenda was still underway. Andrew Chen, Michael Binger and Shaun Deeb were duking it out in the last hands of the NAPT Bounty Shootout even as we wrote this article, and now as it draws to a close we can officially report that Andrew Chen has taken the title in a dramatic double elimination. You can see it first-hand when ESPN2 replays the live coverage later this week.

Related Entries